A Tribute to Sarawak’s 20th Senate President Datuk Mutang Tagal from Ba Kelalan
MY first encounter with Datuk Mutang Tagal and his family goes back to 1985, when I was Sarawak’s first correspondent for the New Straits Times.
Forty years ago, I was invited to attend a gathering of “Lun Bawang” or “Murut” natives celebrating a series of Christian Miracles at Buduk Nur, at the foot of Gunung Murud, Sarawak’s highest mountain complex at 7,953 feet.
It was at Ba Kelalan that I met the prominent family of Pastor Tagal Paran and his two sons: Dr Judson Tagal and his younger sibling, Mutang, a 29-year-old University of Malaya-trained lawyer.
It was here that Pastor Mutang built up his fortune by growing the famous “Padi Adan,” better known as Bario Rice.
Pak Tagal also bred the Sabah species of “ponies” and had a stable of horses. Together with Ba Kelalan’s community of about 1,500 villagers and his two sons, he also developed the surrounding hills and built a tourist resort.
They constructed a mini hydro-electric dam that provided power to nine kampungs.
It was through Pastor Tagal that the community enjoyed facilities, amenities, and the Borneo Evangelical Mission, or Sidang Injil Borneo, which had served the community since the Second World War.
My journey to Ba Kelalan entailed flying by Boeing from Kuching to Miri for a night-stop before connecting by MAS Twin Otter to Lawas’ Buduk Nur airstrip. After a week of investigations, I wrote my story for the New Straits Times (December 2, 1985).
“I saw a video tape recording of one of the miracles … women dressed in white skirts and yellow blouses looking up to the sky.
“Then, as they clapped their hands, a small ball of light appeared in the sky … songs of praise and clapping seemed to bring the ball of fire closer and slightly larger.
“As it zig-zagged in the sky, the villagers of the Sidang Injil Borneo (Borneo Evangelical Mission) continued singing … it appeared to be keeping in rhythm with the choir.”
Reports of “dancing lights” were first recorded in April 1985, on the soccer pitch of the Ba Belan valley, watered by quaint streams, brooks, and bamboo groves from which the community built their habitat.
It was at Ba Kelalan that I met the prophetic pastor Agung Bangau, who motivated the villagers to build Southeast Asia’s highest church, called “Gedung Hallelujah”, on the saddle of Mount Kinabalu.
From Gedung Hallelujah, we hiked for four hours to reach the peak and witness the first 6am sunrise on a misty day.
Grandmothers as old as 80 and children below the age of six from the cluster of Ba Kelalan’s 10 villages — Buduk Nur, Long Langai, Long Lemutut, Long Ritan, Long Rusu, Pa Tawing, Buduk Bui, Buduk Aru, and Long Rangat — have joined in the pilgrimage since.
In my first interview with Agung, he spoke of his journey with an angel who brought him to a place he called “heaven”.
As sceptical as I was, I continued to interview many of the villagers, and they told me the same stories of miracles: a burning bush and how rice had been turned to flour.
It was in this valley, interspersed with bamboo groves, that I met an evangelical Indonesian pastor, “Pendita” Yohanis Sakai, from neighbouring Krayan, who introduced me to his church.
Nearly 40 years later, I continue to be an avid follower of Pak Yohanis, who started his Bible College called “Yayasan Pintu”, or Gateway to Heaven, in the city of Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan (KALTIM).
He convinced me that the miracles were real and challenged me to follow in his footsteps, bravely venturing into “uncharted” spiritual waters in Kalimantan.
On my first night at Ba Kelalan, I had an encounter with an “unholy spirit”, but after Pak Yohanis laid hands on me, I was healed and apparently born again.
Later, Pastor Mutang, who is related to Yohanis and the late Agung, grew Indonesian apples at his farm and built a “home-stay” motel for about 120 visitors and tourists.
It was at apple lodge that I cultivated a close relationship with Pastor Tagal, now 91, his wife Yamu, and the Tagal clan, who are now spread out in Kuala Lumpur and abroad.
Tagal’s first tragedy was the loss of his oldest son, Dr Judson, in a tragic helicopter crash that took the lives of six civil servants and a businessman.
Sadly, Datuk Mutang passed away in May 2024, about 20 years after the tragic death of his brother Judson in July 2004.
