Pandikar Amin Mulia

Pandikar Amin entered politics in 1982 as a member of United Sabah National Organisation (USNO) and later picked as the Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary candidate for Kota Belud in 1982 general elections but lost to the Independent candidate. At the age of 27, however he became Sabah state assemblyman for Usukan from 1982 to 1985. He was appointed the Speaker of Sabah State Legislative Assembly from 1986 to 1988.[1]

In 1999, he was appointed as a Senator and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department until 2002. He was president of People's Justice Front (AKAR), one of the BN component parties in Sabah, at that time. He was elected again Sabah assemblyman from 2004 to 2008; for Tempasuk.

After the 2008 general elections, the BN coalition government announced that Pandikar, a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), would be the new Speaker, replacing Ramli Ngah Talib.[2]

The 12th Parliament was the first to be presided over entirely by East Malaysians; Pandikar and his deputies, Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and Ronald Kiandee, hail from either Sabah or Sarawak.[3] In mid-May, after Parliament convened, Pandikar resigned as Kota Marudu UMNO division chief, citing the need to be a neutral presiding officer. He denied his resignation was linked to possible party-switching amongst UMNO MPs from East Malaysia.[4]

Ahead of the 2018 general elections, Pandikar announced his intention to contest, thus returning to active politics after serving as a non-MP Speaker for two terms.[5] Somehow he was not picked as candidate to contest the elections that saw the downfall of BN in both the federal and state governments. Despite his appointment to the UMNO's supreme council in 14 July 2018; he quit UMNO on 12 December 2018 along with other Sabah UMNO assemblyman to be independents.[6]