KUCHING: Mastura Rapaee, a cousin of the late Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, says she will always remember and cherish the words of advice he gave her.
In the Mukah Melanau dialect it goes something like this: “Menak daau berpada-berpada menak jaat kak sekali,” which means “Do good cautiously, never do harm at all.”
Mastura, a 57-year-old Mukah native who now lives here says these words of her eldest cousin remain etched in her heart.
“I will remember and adhere to all his teachings and admonitions indefinitely,” she said at Taib’s private residence in Demak Jaya.
Expressing sorrow over his passing early Wednesday she also said that Taib resembled her late father, Rapaee Abang Yahya, who was the youngest brother of Taib’s father, Mahmud Abang Yahya.
Mastura said she received news about his death before dawn. Taib, 87, passed away at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur at 4.40am.
His body has since been flown back to Kuching on a Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) C-130 Hercules aircraft from the Subang RMAF Base.
The Sarawak government, through an official statement, informed that the remains would be taken to Taib’s residence in Demak Jaya, Jalan Bako.
Subsequently, the body will be brought to the State Legislative Assembly building on Thursday to allow the public to pay their final respects from 8am to 11.30am.
It will then be taken to the nearby Demak Mosque for funeral prayers, after which he will be laid to rest at the family burial plot in Demak Jaya.
