Wilfred Madius Tangau

Early life

Tangau was born in 1958 in Kampung Lokos, Kiulu, Tuaran, Sabah, into a Kadazan-Dusun family of peasants cum agrarian pastoralists whereby his parents, Peter Yanggau Gokis (born 26 March 1924) and Anna Bolugu Panod (11 August 1932–19 January 2025) were cultivators of hill paddy. He is the fourth child of 14 siblings (two deceased). Upon completing his primary school education at SRK Lokos, Kiulu in 1970, he was determined to continue his education despite initial objections from his parents due to financial constraints.

With his own savings, he enrolled in SMK Kiulu (now known as SMK Tun Fuad Stephens) and attended from Bridge Class to Form Two. To support himself in school, he took up a manual job as a rubber tapper on weekends. He was also employed by a Chinese “towkay”, a term for business owners in Kiulu town, which at that time only had a row of shops. He then could save on his pocket money for food as well as lodging, since the school has a hostel for students from remote areas as well as those from the larger town of Tamparuli and far away areas such as Telipok, Inanam and Manggatal townships on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu, Kota Belud as well as Kundasang/Bundu Tuhan, Ranau.

He often speaks of his childhood fondly:

At the age of just 13, students from my village Lokos would walk to our secondary school in Kiulu every two weeks or so. We would depart at 6am from my village and arrive at our school at 6pm, carrying food supplies, mainly rice. As a young undergraduate from UPM, I would walk for four hours from Pekan Nabalu township in neighbouring Kota Belud to my village, Kampung Lokos. Generally the people from my village are from poor families without a regular source of income as they survived on subsistence farming.

At the end of Form Two he was awarded a Boarding Scholarship from the Sabah State Government to further his studies in SMK Ranau (now known as SMK Mat Salleh) in Form Three in 1974. With the good results he obtained in the Lower Certificate of Education (LCE), he was granted a Sabah State Government Scholarship to pursue his upper secondary education at Setapak High School, Kuala Lumpur.

Inspired by fellow schoolmates in this school, he initiated a student society in his village called KEPALOS, which formed student study groups and fundraised to finance their programmes. In 1976, Tangau passed his Malaysian Certificate of Education (SPM) with Grade One. With this he earned the same scholarship to continue his Form Six at Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor (SMSS) Cheras, a governmental fully residential school. Whilst schooling there, he was an active student leader and a debater for his school. Prior to his tertiary education while waiting for the results of his Higher School Certificate, he served as a temporary teacher at SMK Tamparuli, Tuaran, Sabah, for five months. He taught Integrated Science or Sains Paduan to Form One students.

Prior to politics

Shortly after graduating from UPM, Tangau was sent to Japan for a four-month training stint in various research institutions. Upon returning to Sabah in 1985 he assisted Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) as a backroom boy to form the new Sabah government. He joined the newly set up Institute for Development Studies (IDS) Sabah as a research associate, and served for nine years until 1994.

When BN toppled PBS in 1994, Tangau assisted leaders who left the party to form Parti Demokratik Sabah (PDS). For the next five years Tangau served as the chief executive officer at the Institute for Indigenous Economic Progress (INDEP) Sabah, a think-tank set established by PDS. The objective of INDEP was to engage Pasokmomogun community groups in Sabah in policymaking and assist UPKO leaders in decision-makings.

Tangau also served as Chairman of several federal agencies and state linked companies such as the Sabah Cultural Board (LKNS), Forest Plantation Development Sdn. Bhd., Malaysian Timber Industrial Board (MTIB) and Asian Supply Base Sdn Bhd (ASB). In addition, Tangau once also sat on the boards of Suria Capital Berhad and Sabah Energy Corporation Sdn. Bhd.

Political career

During the 1999 Sabah state election , 10 of the 12 PDS candidates who contested were defeated. Due to this devastating defeat Tangau was requested by the party leadership to contest in the 1999 parliamentary general election, effectively thrusting him from backroom boy to mainstream politics.

Tangau has been involved in UPKO since the party's early days. Shortly after he was first elected as an MP he became the Information Chief. He was then appointed as the Secretary-General in 2002.

Tangau was elected as the Member of Parliament for Tuaran for the first time in 1999 general election and again in 2004. He did not contest in the 2008 general election, to make way for then-UPKO Deputy President Wilfred Bumburing to contest.

In 2012, Wilfred Bumburing quit UPKO to join the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition, thus the Deputy President post fell vacant. Tangau was elected as the new Deputy President in October 2013, defeating Dr. Ewon Ebin, then-UPKO Vice President, with a slim majority.

In the 2013 general election, he once again was elected as the Member of Parliament for Tuaran and won by a majority of over 5,000 votes.

In March 2014, the founding president Bernard Dompok stepped down, nearly 10 months after he lost the Penampang parliamentary seat in the 2018 general election. Since then, Tangau served as the Acting President of UPKO until he won the president post uncontested in the party's triennial general meeting on 24 September 2018.

Ministerial career

Prime Minister Najib Razak announced a new cabinet line-up on 28 July 2015, involving the appointment of seven new ministers and nine deputy ministers. Tangau was appointed as the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. He was sworn in before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 4 August 2015.

Tangau's vision for the Ministry has been for science, technology and innovation to be drivers of the “new economy”, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. He actively promoted innovation as a way of life. Practical problems in life, especially those economic challenges should be properly identified and then innovate to resolved them using science and technologies. Innovators should be encouraged to secure Intellectual Property (IP) for their innovation and then the government should incentivised them to commercialised such that it will generate wealth and create jobs for the people. He started the National Innovation and Creative Economy (NICE) Expo in 2017. He blogs regularly and writes a weekly column every Sunday in the Daily Express, the largest daily newspaper in Sabah, expressing his thoughts about the advancement of science, technology and innovation in the country during his ministerial term.

Later career

In the aftermath of 2018 general election, UPKO under his leadership decided to quit Barisan Nasional and joined the Pakatan Harapan-Warisan government bloc both federally and at the state, citing the popular aspiration for change. Tangau was appointed as nominated assemblyman to serve as Deputy Chief Minister I of Sabah (Kadazandusun Murut/Non-Muslim Bumiputera quota) in the Shafie Apdal cabinet and remained so until the coalition lost snap election in 2020.

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

Malaysia

Companion of the Order of Loyalty to the Crown of Malaysia (JSM) (2000)

Recipient of the 17th Yang di-Pertuan Agong Installation Medal (2024)

Sabah

Grand Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (SPDK) – Datuk Seri Panglima (2016)

Commander of the Order of Kinabalu (PGDK) – Datuk (2004)

Member of the Order of Kinabalu (ADK) (2002)

Justice of the Peace (JP) (1998)