Wilfred Madius Tangau

Madius bin Tangau, commonly known as Wilfred Madius Tangau (born 13 March 1958) is a Malaysian politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tuaran from November 1999 to March 2008 and again since May 2013, and concurrently serves as a Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly for Tamparuli since November 2025. He served as the Deputy Chief Minister I and State Minister of Trade and Industry of Sabah in the Sabah Heritage Party (WARISAN) state administration under Chief Minister Shafie Apdal from May 2018 to the collapse of the WARISAN state administration in September 2020 from May 2018 to the collapse of the WARISAN administration in September 2020. Previously, he served as the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation under Prime Minister Najib Razak from July 2015 to May 2018. He is a member of the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO), formerly a component party of the Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalitions. He has served as the Honorary President of UPKO since January 2023, second President of UPKO from March 2014 to January 2023, when he served in the official capacity from September 2018 to January 2023 and acting capacity from March 2014 following the resignation of Bernard Giluk Dompok to his official assumption of UPKO presidency in September 2018.

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 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 Selango r (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.

In 1979, having successfully completed his Higher School Certificate, Tangau was accepted into University Pertanian Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, to do his bachelor's degree in Forestry Science. He was an active student leader at university. He was the President of the Catholic Student Society for two terms from 1981 to 1982. He was also a keen observer of the political development of his birth state Sabah, and nationwide. He graduated in 1983 and soon after, he secured a job at the Sabah Forestry Development Authority (SAFODA) as a research officer on silviculture. In 1985 he was accepted as an individual participant to study forest management in various institutions in Japan under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for four months. He had the opportunity to travel and stay in Tokyo, Osaka, Hokkaido and Tsukuba. Subsequently, in 1990 he obtained a master's degree in Development Management from Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in the Philippines.

He is married to Dr. Jaina Sintian, a medical doctor from Bundu Tuhan village, Ranau, who is the founding Vice Chief of the UPKO Women Movement Chief (Wanita UPKO), later becoming its Chief in 2008 and only retired from the position in 2018 when her husband was elected officially as the President of UPKO and served in this position until 2023. Together they have five children; four daughters and a son.

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.

Election results

Honours Honours of Malaysia

Justice of the Peace (JP) (1998)