Tunku Abdul Rahman

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Tunku Abdul Rahman

Order:	1st Prime Minister of Malaysia
Term of Office:	August 31, 1957–September 22, 1970
Date of birth:	February 8, 1903
Date of death:	December 6, 1990
Place of birth	Alor Star, Kedah
Place of death	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Wife	Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah
Occupation	Lawyer
Religion	Sunni Islam
Political party:	UMNO
Deputy PM:	Tun Abdul Razak (1957–1970)

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah (February 8, 1903 – December 6, 1990) usually known as "the Tunku" (a princely title in Malaysia), and also called Bapa Kemerdekaan (Father of Independence) or Bapa Malaysia (Father of Malaysia), was Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955, and the country's first Prime Minister from independence in 1957. He remained Prime Minister after Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore joined in 1963 to form Malaysia.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early political career 3 Road to independence 4 Prime Minister 5 Involvements in Islam 6 Later life 7 Family 7.1 Tunku Abdul Rahman Stamp Issues

[edit] Early life

Born in Istana Pelamin, Alor Star, Kedah, Abdul Rahman was the fourteenth son and twentieth child of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, the twenty-fourth Sultan of Kedah. His mother, Cik Menjalara, was a daughter of Luang Naraborirak (Kleb), a Thai district officer during the reign of King Rama V of Thailand.

Abdul Rahman began his education in 1909 at a Malay Primary School, Jalan Baharu, in Alor Star and was later transferred to the Government English School, now the Sultan Abdul Hamid College, Alor Star, where he studied during the day and read the Qur'an in the afternoon. Two years later, when he was eight, he was sent to study at the Thebsirintrawat School (Debsirin School) in Bangkok along with his three brothers. In 1915, he returned and continued his studies at Penang Free School.

In 1918, Abdul Rahman was awarded a Kedah State Scholarship to further his studies at St Catharine's College in the University of Cambridge, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925. He was the first student from Kedah to study in the United Kingdom under the sponsorship of the Kedah State Government.

Upon his return home, Abdul Rahman worked in the Kedah public service and was appointed as District Officer of Kulim and Sungai Petani. Some time later he returned to England to complete his law studies at the Inner Temple, but was forced to stop in 1938 and, on the outbreak of World War II, he returned to Malaya. He resumed his studies at the Inner Temple in 1947 and, in 1949, he qualified for the Bar.

During this period Abdul Rahman met with Abdul Razak Hussein (later known as Datuk and Tun). He was elected president of the Malay Society of Great Britain, and Abdul Razak, who was twenty-six, was his secretary.

[edit] Early political career

After his return to Malaya in 1949, Abdul Rahman was first posted at the Legal Officer's office in Alor Star. He later asked to be transferred to Kuala Lumpur, where he became a Deputy Public Prosecutor. He was later appointed as president of the Sessions Court.

During this period, nationalism was running high among the Malays, with Datuk Onn Jaafar leading the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in the struggle against Britain's Malayan Union (see History of Malaysia). Abdul Rahman joined UMNO and became active in Malayan nationalist politics. In August 1951, and internal crisis in UMNO forced Datuk Onn to resign as party president. Abdul Rahman was elected as the new president, holding the post for 20 stupid years.

[edit] Road to independence

In 1954 Abdul Rahman led a delegation to London to seek independence for Malaya, but the trip proved to be unfruitful. In the following year, the first federal general election was held, and the Alliance Party (Perikatan), a coalition of UMNO, the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) won fifty-one out of the fifty-two seats contested. Abdul Rahman was elected as Malaya's first Chief Minister. The Alliance was later joined by the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) in 1955, representing the Indian community.

Later in 1955 Abdul Rahman made another trip to London to negotiate Malayan independence, and 31 August 1957, was decided as the date for independence. When the British flag was lowered in Kuala Lumpur on independence day, Abdul Rahman led the crowd in announcing "Merdeka!" (freedom!). Photographs of Abdul Rahman raising his hand, and recordings of his emotional but determined voice leading the cheers, have become familiar icons of Malaysian independence.

[edit] Prime Minister

Abdul Rahman dominated the politics of independent Malaya (which became Malaysia in 1963), and led the Alliance to landslide wins in the 1959, and 1964 general elections.

The formation of Malaysia was one of Abdul Rahman's greatest achievements. In 1961 he made a speech at the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southeast Asia in Singapore, proposing a federation Malaya, Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak, and Brunei. On 16 September 1963, with the federation of all these states except Brunei, Abdul Rahman was formally restyled Prime Minister of Malaysia.

However, the racial factor was worsened with the inclusion of Singapore, which increased the Chinese proportion to close to 40%. Both UMNO and the MCA were nervous about the possible appeal of Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party (PAP, then seen as a radical socialist party) to voters in Malaya, and tried to organise a party in Singapore to challenge Lee's position there. Lee in turn threatened to run PAP candidates in Malaya at the 1964 federal elections, despite an earlier agreement that he would not do so (see PAP-UMNO relations). This provoked Abdul Rahman to demand that Singapore withdraw from Malaysia. On 7 August 1965, Abdul Rahman announced to the Parliament of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur that the Parliament should vote yes on the resolution to have Singapore to leave the Federation, choosing to "sever all ties with a State Government that showed no measure of loyalty to its Central Government" as opposed to the undesirable method of repressing the PAP for its actions. Singapore's secession and independence became official on 9 August 1965

Abdul Rahman initiated the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) in 1961, grouping Malaya, Thailand and the Philippines. This grouping was later replaced by a larger grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which was formed on 8 August 1967.

At the 1969 general election, the Alliance's majority was greatly reduced. Demonstrations following the elections sparked the May 13 racial riots in Kuala Lumpur. Some UMNO leaders led by Tun Abdul Razak were critical of Abdul Rahman's leadership during these events, and an emergency committee MAGERAN took power and declared a state of emergency. Abdul Rahman's powers as Prime Minister were severely curtailed, and on 22 September 1970, he was forced to resign as Prime Minister in favour of Tun Abdul Razak. He subsequently resigned as UMNO President in June 1971, in the midst of severe opposition of the 'Young Turks' comprising party rebels such as Mahathir Mohammad and Musa Hitam. The duo later became Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia respectively.

[edit] Involvements in Islam

After making Islam the state religion in 1960, Abdul Rahman established the Islamic Welfare Organisation (PERKIM), an organisation to help Muslim converts adjust to new lives as Muslims. He was President of PERKIM until a year before his death. In 1961 Malaysia hosted the first International Qur'an Recital Competition, an event that developed from Abdul Rahman's idea when he organised the first state-level competition in Kedah in 1951.

In 1969 Abdul Rahman helped to set up the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), of which he was the first Secretary-General. Subsequently, he initiated the setting up of the Islamic Development Bank as a specialised institution within the OIC. He was also President of the Regional Islamic Da'wah Council of South East Asia and the Pacific (RISEAP) from 1982 to 1988.

[edit] Later life

In 1977, having acquired substantial shares in The Star, a Penang-based newspaper, Abdul Rahman became the newspaper's Chairman. His columns, "Looking Back" and "As I See It", were critical of the government, and in 1987 Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad banned the newspaper. This led to a split in UMNO, with Abdul Rahman and another former Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, setting up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, but its registration was quashed by Mahathir Mohamad, who set up his own UMNO Baru ("New UMNO"). Abdul Rahman later supported Semangat 46, a splinter group of UMNO led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. He campaigned actively for the latter in the General election of 1990, but was already in very poor health.

In his later years, Abdul Rahman lived in his house in Penang. The Tunku died on 6 December 1990 at the age of eighty-seven, and was laid to rest at the Langgar Royal Mausoleum in Alor Star.

[edit] Family

Abdul Rahman married at least four times. By his first wife, a Chinese woman named Meriam Chong, he had Tunku Ahmad Nerang Putra and Tunku Khadijah. On Meriam's death, he married his former landlady in England, Violet Coulson. Ordered to divorce her by the Regent of Kedah, he married a distant cousin, Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah, with whom he adopted four children, Sulaiman, Mariam, Faridah and another. Wanting to have more children of his own, he secretly married another Chinese lady named Bibi Chong who converted, whom he had two daughters with, Tunku Noor Hayati and Tunku Mastura.^{[citation needed]}

An avid sportsman, Tunku Abdul Rahman initiated an international football tournament, the Pestabola Merdeka (Independence Football Festival) in 1957. The following year, he was elected as the first president of Asian Football Confederation (AFC), a post he held until 1976.

In 1961, Tunku Abdul Rahman was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) by Queen Elizabeth II.

[edit] Tunku Abdul Rahman Stamp Issues

• His stamps appeared on the 1991: Past Prime Ministers of Malaysia stamps issue and his stamps was among them.
• In 2003 they decided to issue stamps of Tunku Abdul Rahman to commemorate his 100th birthday anniversary and they wanted to pay tribute to him as he was the first prime minister of Malaysia since Malaysia became an independent nation in 1957.

Preceded by (none)

Prime Ministers of Malaysia 1957-1970

Succeeded by Abdul Razak

Prime Ministers of Malaysia
Tunku Abdul Rahman | Abdul Razak | Hussein Onn | Mahathir Mohamad | Abdullah Badawi