KUCHING: Education, Science and Technological Research Minister Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong remembered Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos Mamit fondly as a man of great potential with workaholic tendencies.
Manyin reminisced about the former Energy, Green Technology and Water Deputy Minister’s career, telling reporters that Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud during his tenure as chief minister had once groomed Dawos as he had personally seen potential in him to one day hold the post of state secretary.
“I have known Dawos from our schooling days — he was three years my junior at St Joseph’s School,” said Manyin at the residence of the late Dawos in Stutong Indah yesterday, where he was paying his last respects.
According to Manyin, he perceived the late Dawos as his younger brother, stating that they had been close not only in their younger days but also during their working years.
In reference to the former deputy minister’s workaholic attitude, he cited numerous examples when the late Dawos had put work before his own health even after his diagnosis of nose cancer and other health complications that occurred.
He recalled a time when the late Dawos had insisted that he had to fly to Korea to deliver a speech in spite of just being discharged from the hospital.
“Just before Gawai too, he had just left the hospital and I paid him a visit. He was talking about hydrogen buses!” he exclaimed.
“This is James Dawos. He does not think about himself; he thinks about his work and the people. Not many politicians are like that,” Manyin said.
