Name Bernard Dompok Religion Roman Catholic | Children 5 Spouse Diana Alip Role Politician | |
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Website bernard-dompok.blogspot.com Political party United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation | ||
Education University of East London | ||
Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok (born 7 October 1949) is a former Malaysian politician. He was the Chief Minister of Sabah from 1998 to 1999 and a federal minister from 2004 to 2013. He was the president of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Dusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) from 1994 to 2014 and was a member of the Parliament of Malaysia from 1986 to 1995 and from 1999 to 2013. In October 2015, Dompok was appointed as Malaysia’s first resident ambassador to the Vatican.
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Early life
He was born in Penampang, Sabah, and received his education in SM St. Michael, Penampang and SM La Salle, Tanjung Aru. Later he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of East London. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM)
Career
He started his career as a valuer at the Sabah Lands & Surveys Department in 1978. Then he left the public sector and worked as a private valuer for about five years from 1980 until 1985.
Political career
Initially a member of the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Dompok contested, and won, both the Sabah State Legislative Assembly seat of Moyog, and the federal seat of Penampang, in separate 1986 elections. PBS won a majority in the state assembly at the election, and Dompok was appointed the state's finance minister.
He became the President of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Dusun Murut Organisation (UPKO), then known as the Parti Demokrat Sabah, in 1994. The party was formed when Dompok and others split from the Parti Bersatu Sabah to join the Barisan Nasional coalition and deliver the coalition a majority in the Sabah State Legislative Assembly. After switching to the Barisan Nasional, he lost his parliamentary seat at the 1995 election to a PBS candidate.
Despite losing his federal seat, Dompok remained a state assemblyman and a senior member of the Barisan Nasional state government that he had helped to form. He served in a range of ministries in the state government, before assuming the post of Chief Minister, on a rotating basis, from 1998 to 1999. In 1999 he won the federal parliamentary seat of Kinabalu, defeating a PBS candidate. In 2004, he joined the Federal Cabinet as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department and in 2008, he became Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities. His federal parliamentary career ended at the 2013 election, when he lost his parliamentary seat to Darrell Leiking of the People's Justice Party (PKR).
Family
He is currently married to Puan Sri Diana Alip and the couple have five children in total (four from his current marriage and one from a previous marriage).