Drifting into Politics : The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman [1 ed.] 9789814695404, 9789814695305

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Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved. Drifting into Politics : The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, 2015.

Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of sociopolitical, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

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Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved. Drifting into Politics : The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute, 2015.

First published in Singapore in 2015 by ISEAS Publishing 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Singapore 119614 E-mail: [email protected] Website: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. © 2015 ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the authors and their interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publisher or its supporters.

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ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Tawfik Ismail. Drifting into Politics : the Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman / Tawfik Tun Dr Ismail and Ooi Kee Beng. (Local history : 25) 1. Ismail Dato Abdul Rahman, Tun, 1915-1973. 2. Malaysia—Politics and government—20th century. I. Ooi, Kee Beng, 1955II. Title. III. Series: Local history and memoirs (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies) ; 25. DS501 I595L no. 25 2015 ISBN 978-981-4695-30-5 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-4695-40-4 (E-book PDF) Typeset by International Typesetters Pte Ltd Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd

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Contents

PREFACE vii Sultan Nazrin Shah, Sultan of Perak INTRODUCTION xi Ooi Kee Beng

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CHRONOLOGY of Tun Dr Ismail bin Datuk Haji Abdul Rahman’s Life (From The Reluctant Politician) REVIEW of The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (From Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society)

xvii

xxiii

Drifting into Politics: The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman Chapter One

3

Chapter Two

11

Chapter Three

17

Chapter Four

21

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vi Contents

Chapter Five

26

Chapter Six

30

Chapter Seven

33

Chapter Eight

36

Chapter Nine

41

Chapter Ten

47

Chapter Eleven

50

Chapter Twelve

53

Chapter Thirteen

59

Chapter Fourteen

63

Chapter Fifteen

66

Chapter Sixteen

71

Further Notes (30 March 1970) 74 Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

Further Notes (26 October 1972) 77 Index 83 About the Editors 88

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PREFACE

Nation building is often assumed. Unless one happens to be intimately involved, the details are not obvious; certainly not to the man in the street, let alone to the young and far-removed generations. The rough-and-tumble of competing visions and political manoeuvrings are conducted mostly behind the scenes and away from the public eye. Much of this is not reported by the media or even recorded for posterity. Thus, nation building may seem mysterious to some and non-existent to many others. It is only when one reads the writings of those in the thick of things that one begins to understand the dilemmas, complexities, and uncertainties. It is then that one starts to appreciate the dimensions of the problems and the qualities of the people involved. Intelligence, knowledge, and skill are commonly not enough to arrive at the desired outcomes. Values, beliefs, and principles are equally critical, as are the conviction and firmness in holding onto them. If the nation-building process is not always apparent, their results most definitely are. The difference between national unity and disunity, administrative effectiveness and dysfunction, and prosperity and poverty are not so much driven by policy pronouncements as the strength of the consensus that led them to be crafted in the first place. Force, coercion, and threats are rarely effective in sustained nation building. vii

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viii Preface

In Drifting into Politics: The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, readers are taken on a first-hand journey into the behind-the-scenes tumult that preceded Independence, the formation of the Federation of Malaya and Malaysia, and postMay 1969. One sees how, at each stage, things could have so easily gone down a different path and gone badly wrong were it not for a handful of men who thought nothing of putting their careers, families, and ultimately even their lives on the line. Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman was such a man. He worked hard to achieve his personal ambition of being a medical doctor, but just when he was in a position to reap the rewards, he yielded to the call of a cause bigger than himself: first, independence, and then nation building. This may seem quaint and old-fashioned by the values of today but nothing could be further from the truth. Nation building has always required recognition of the superordinate goal of creating a real home for all races, cultures, and classes. Tun Dr Ismail wrote with a simple and unaffected style that makes for easy reading. The issues that he had to deal with, however, were anything but easy. As politician, ambassador, minister, and later Deputy Prime Minister, he dealt with many issues that Malaysians still struggle with today. His thoughts and experiences as Malaya’s first ambassador to the United States and to the United Nations are thoroughly captured in Malaya’s First Year at United Nations as Reflected in Dr Ismail’s Reports Home to Tunku Abdul Rahman (ISEAS 2009), also compiled and edited by Tawfik Ismail and Ooi Kee Beng. Historians will find a great deal in his memoirs to shape their perspectives and fuel much needed discussion about the early days of this nation. It is my hope that Malaysians will also gain a better understanding as to how this country came to be and, as a result, cherish and preserve what they have.

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Preface ix

As in many things, the insights and perspectives gained are those of one person, albeit an acknowledged community and national leader. There is the tendency today to gloss over details and difficulties and to be overly judgemental of those in such positions, without giving proper recognition to the constraints and obstacles they face. Issues of right and wrong, however, are better understood in the context of the hothouse of competing claims and necessary trade-offs. That, after all, is what democracy is all about. Dr Ooi Kee Beng is to be commended once again for his ongoing research into the life of Tun Dr Ismail. Coming after the success of his The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time, published in 2006, Drifting into Politics adds a first person account, albeit, and sadly, unfinished due to Tun’s untimely demise. Tribute also goes to the co-editor, Tawfik Ismail who has done so much to preserve his late father’s legacy.

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Sultan Nazrin Shah, Sultan of Perak

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INTRODUCTION

Mohamed Tawfik bin Tun Dr Ismail faithfully donated his father’s papers to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in March 2005 after being convinced by his old friend, Ambassador Verghese Mathews, that they would be well taken care of there. The then-director of ISEAS, Mr K. Kesavapany, happily embraced the documents, and since then, two books have been published by the Institute, based on these papers. Newly arrived at ISEAS, I was lucky enough to be chosen to write the biography of the man, based on these papers and a large number of interviews with people who had known him well. These included Singapore’s first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and Malaysian billionaire, Robert Kuok. With the able assistance from Tawfik Ismail, the book was done within eighteen months. The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (2006) became an instant bestseller when Malaysia’s The New Straits Times immediately carried excerpts from it for seven days in a row. Singapore’s The Straits Times followed suit soon after, disseminating sections from the book for five days. Malaysian bloggers began discussing the late Deputy Prime Minister’s sense of duty and honour following a stimulating book launch on 22 March 2007 at Danga Bay in Johor Bahru. This launch was most ably organized by Karim Raslan Associates, with another xi

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xii Introduction

former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, gracing the event as the keynote speaker.

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With the Help of Reviewers What, for me, were very gratifying reviews and discussions appeared in most newspapers, online news outlets, and blog sites in Malaysia and Singapore in the following months. To give readers an idea of how the book was discussed, an academic review by Professor John Funston is included in this present volume, with his kind permission and that of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which it was published. The Reluctant Politician went on to win in 2008 the Award of Excellence for Best Writing Published in Book Form on Any Aspect of Asia (non-fiction) at that year’s Asian Publishing Convention. It was translated into Malay in 2007, and published as Bukan Kerana Pangkat: Tun Dr Ismail dan Masanya (SIRD and ISEAS). A Chinese version is expected to be ready by 2016. The impact the book has had on Malaysian political consciousness was underlined further in August 2008 by the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, just a year and a half after its publication. Under the direction of Joe Hasham, the Centre had the book adapted by Ng U-En into “Ismail, The Last Days”. Actor Malik Taufiq played the role of Ismail in this musical drama. Tun Dr Ismail is now definitely part of the political discourse in Malaysia, a process stimulated further by the appearance in 2009 of the second volume based on his papers — Malaya’s First Year at the United Nations: As Reflected in Dr Ismail’s Reports Home to Tunku Abdul Rahman (ISEAS). This provided insights into the young doctor’s family life and his style of leadership, and into how he adapted his thinking to meet the requirements of a diplomat and nation builder.

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Introduction xiii

Reluctantly Leaving Medicine for Politics

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Since The Reluctant Politician appeared, pressure has been mounting for the unfinished autobiography found among Tun Dr Ismail’s papers to be published. This year, 2015, is the 100th anniversary of Tun Dr Ismail’s birth. It is indeed an apt time to make his unfinished autobiography available to the world. Ismail bin Datuk Abdul Rahman was born in Johor Bahru on 4 November 1915 and passed away after suffering a heart attack at his home in Kuala Lumpur on 2 August 1973. He had returned from retirement to help then-Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein to steer the country back to democracy following the racial riots of 13 May 1969. The measures taken to achieve that will always remain highly controversial, and many are the speculations about how Malaysia would have developed if he had lived longer, and if he had succeeded Tun Abdul Razak (who died in January 1976) as prime minister. What was not known to the world was that the two men — prime minister and deputy prime minister — were both in very bad health. Both did not expect to live long. The two men expected Tun Razak, who was suffering from leukaemia, to pass away first. His sickness had already been diagnosed as early as in late 1969. It would therefore have been their plan for Tun Dr Ismail, who suffered chronically from a bad heart, to take over the running of the country under the Second Malaysia Plan and to implement the crucial New Economy Policy. As fate would have it, Tun Dr Ismail passed away first, while Tun Razak lived on for more than two years. Scholars today would find it worth their while to study the Razak period in two separate parts — the period when Tun Dr Ismail was helping the prime minister govern after 13 May 1969, and the period after August 1973 when he left the stage.

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xiv Introduction

ISEAS is most grateful to Tun Dr Ismail’s family for the donation of his papers, and we are happy to make the third book to be based on them available to the public. It is an unfinished autobiography, as noted in the title. In any case, the author — a medical doctor by training — was not given to lengthy prose. It should be noted that the “further notes” attached to the end in this book were found separately among his papers, and not within the Drifting manuscript itself. Given their contemplative character, it seems very appropriate to include them as final thoughts, or as the final diary-like scribbles that the very busy and ailing man could manage. Since The Reluctant Politician came out, I have often been asked if Tun Dr Ismail really entered politics reluctantly. My standard reply has simply been that that was what the man himself said. Here was a man who studied hard abroad, and at great expense to his family, to become a medical doctor. That was a profession he thought worth aiming for. Politics was hardly on his mind before his return from Australia to Johor after the Second World War. Johor society had changed beyond recognition by then. The British seemed to have lost their right — and their wish — to rule, and independence was in the air, as it was throughout the colonized world. The Malays — and other Malayans — were feeling a strong need to take fate into their own hands. The young doctor was one of very few highly educated Malays at that time, and he could not stop himself being drawn into politics. To use his own words, he drifted into politics. But of course, even if one drifts, the last part of the drift would have happened at a highly accelerated rate. In thinking that he was drifting into politics, he was presumably observing the whole span of his life, how he slowly but surely could not avoid the dynamics of his time. It would be more correct to say that in the end, he plunged into politics.

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Introduction xv

As Tun Musa Hitam said at the book launch in 2007, Tun Dr Ismail had once advised him, a hasty and much younger man, to exercise more patience: “Every politician must wait his time.” Drifting into Politics is a short biography by any measure, but it is aimed to fulfil the greater purpose of encouraging readers not only to revisit the two earlier books about Tun Dr Ismail but also to rethink the early history of Malaysia, to contemplate what multi-ethnicity involves, and to realize that principled and fair leadership, though rare, is a requirement for any nation-building project to have any chance of succeeding.

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Ismail’s Legacy For the sake of those who have not read The Reluctant Politician, or who do not know much about Malaysia’s early history, it is deemed advisable that his legacy be discussed before this memoir is read. Since The Reluctant Politician was published ten years ago, Tun Dr Ismail’s leadership style, character, contributions to Malaysian nation building, and what might have been if “the best Prime Minister Malaysia never had” had not met an early demise, have been widely discussed. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that that is the measure of the impact of the book. In that sense, therefore, the legacy of Tun Dr Ismail is being rediscovered, and continues to be rediscovered. Since 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the man’s birth, the publication of his autobiography hopes to contribute further to that process of rediscovery. It is also a rediscovery of the early period of Malaysian nation building, which was largely reflected in the history of UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) itself. More clearly, it was manifested in the personalities of its early leaders.

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xvi Introduction

With his early death, and that of Tun Abdul Razak, alongside the implementation of the New Economic Policy that evolved, to a significant extent, away from its original purposes along the way and was overshadowed by the country’s Islamization process that began around the same time, the memory of Tun Dr Ismail faded from Malaysian minds. In that sense, one cannot really talk about any obvious sustained legacy stemming from his time in power, apart from his contribution to the agenda for the neutralization of the Southeast Asian region. He died too young and too suddenly; and he never became prime minister. His importance today, judging from the ways he is presently mentioned in speeches and articles, lies in his strong sense of fair play, his respect for ethnic diversity, and his principled leadership. The need for these are amplified today by their increasing disappearance from the country’s political scene. My own sense is that young — and old — Malaysians, in despair over the present situation of interethnic and interfaith intolerance, the arrogant mainstreaming of high-level corruption, and the dismissal of the rule of law as the only means through which a multi-ethnic society can survive look to best practices in governance accepted globally and seek some beacon from the country’s past which resonates with this aspiration. They find the latter in Tun Dr Ismail, among very few others. Not much has been written in an academic manner about the past leaders of the country. Too much politicizing has taken place in recent decades in Malaysia for that to happen, and in any case, the culture of writing credible biographies and autobiographies is still in its infancy among Malaysians. The hagiographic tendency is still strongly embedded in local writers. Ooi Kee Beng 31 May 2015

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CHRONOLOGY of Tun Dr Ismail bin Datuk Haji Abdul Rahman’s Life

1915

Born on 4 November in Johor Bahru (JB) to Abdul Rahman bin Yassin (1890–1970) and Zahara binte Abu Bakar (?–1936).

1922

Starts his education at Sekolah Bukit Zaharah and later goes to English College, both in Johor Bahru.

1936–39

Does medical studies at King Edward College of Medicine, Singapore.

1939–45

Studies medicine at Queen’s College, Melbourne University.

1945

Becomes the first Malayan medical graduate from Melbourne University, and subsequently returns to Malaya. He joins the Medical Department in Johor, but leaves after a short stint.

1947–53

Goes into private practice in Johor Bahru, and is moderately successful with a clinic called Tawakkal (Trust in God), named after his childhood home.

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xviii Chronology

1948–54

Nominated unofficial member of the Johor State Council, and then official member of the Johor Executive Council. He is elected into the Johor Bahru Town Council.

1950

Marries Norashikin Seth (nickname Neno, born 17 January 1930 in Johor Bahru). The couple has six children: two girls and four boys (Mohamed Tawfik, born 23 September 1951 in GH in JB; Zailah, born 2 May 1953 in GH in JB; Badariah, born 8 March 1957 in Petaling Jaya; Mohamed Tarmizi, born 23 May 1960 in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur [KL]; Zamakhshari, born 16 September 1964 at GH in KL; and Mohamed Ariff, born 25 October 1967 in KL).

1951

Finally joins UMNO after Onn Ja’afar resigned and Tunku Abdul Rahman had gained control of the party.

1953

Appointed in September as unofficial member of the Federal Legislative Council under Sir Gerald Templer. He becomes Member of Lands, Mines and Communication at Tunku Abdul Rahman’s request. He moves with his family to Kuala Lumpur.

1954–55

Becomes Member of Natural Resources.

1955

Elected to the Federal Legislative Council for the Johore Timor constituency (to be re-elected in 1959, 1964, and 1969). Elected Minister for Natural Resources, and lays groundwork for Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) in May (see The Star, 26 March 2001).

1956

The new Chief Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman appoints him Minister of Commerce and Industry.

1961–67

Minister of Justice, and Minister of Home Affairs.

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Chronology xix

1957 – 1959 (September) (February)

Becomes Minister Plenipotentiary (without portfolio), and is sent as Malaya’s first ambassador to Washington D.C., USA, and Malaya’s first Permanent Head of Federation to the United Nations in New York.

1959

Returns from Washington and becomes Minister of Commerce and Industry.

1959

Elected member for Johore Timor to the Dewan Ra’ayat and is appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in August. He is Minister of Commerce and Trade from 20 September to 17 November.

1960

Becomes Minister of Internal Security on 16 November, and also chairman of the Commission of the Enquiry into the Position of the Malayan Student Community in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

1961

Given the additional post of Minister of Home Affairs on 22 February. Appointed Federal Representative to the Internal Security Council in Singapore, until 16 September 1963.

1961–67

Minister of Justice, and Minister of Home Affairs.

1962

Leads delegation to United Nations General Assembly 17th meeting.

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xx Chronology

1963

Becomes chairman of Malaysian Security Board.

1964

Re-elected member of Johore Timor Constituency in April. Appointed Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Justice. In September, he leads a Malaysian delegation to the United Nations Security Council to debate the Indonesian aggression.

1965

Makes a trip to the United Nations Headquarters in New York with his wife Neno, together with Philip Kuok and wife, then travels to Madrid, London, and Beirut, before returning home at end of November. In September, he receives the Grand Officer of the National Order of Vietnam from the South Vietnamese government through a visiting delegation.

1966

He starts the year by visiting Manila to attend the presidential inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos. In April, he accepts an invitation from the South Korean Central Intelligence Service to visit Seoul for eight days, and is awarded the Order of Merit (First Class). He flies to London in May 1966 to attend the Conference of Law Ministers from the Commonwealth. He becomes chairman of Malayan Banking after its financial collapse and subsequent nationalization. He becomes the first to be conferred the Seri Setia Mahkota (Grand Commander), which carries the title “Tun”.

1967

In June, he resigns from the Cabinet — though not as a Member of Parliament — for health reasons, and returns to private medical practice. He joins the Board of Malaysian Sugar Refineries and Guthries.

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Chronology xxi

1967

Undergoes successful treatment at Royal Marsden Hospital in London for cancer of the nasopharynx. Starts private practice in Kuala Lumpur with a group of doctors on his return.

1969

Asked to return to government by Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein after 10 May elections. Becomes Deputy Director of Operations of the National Operations Council. On 12 June, he is appointed Minister of Home Affairs. In September, he makes a trip to Europe and the United Kingdom for medical treatment over three weeks. A medical check-up in 23–24 September gives him “a clean bill of health”. His official golf handicap is certified by the Royal Selangor Golf Club on 21 October as 15.

1970

Leaves for London on 3 March for heart consultation, and stays for nine weeks. In his absence, he is awarded the Republic of Indonesia Medal Second Class when President Suharto visits Kuala Lumpur. In September, the new premier Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein appoints him deputy. He visits London between 4–11 October for a medical check-up on the way to New York for the 25th anniversary celebrations of the United Nations.

1971

He visits Dubrovnik. In September, he travels to Singapore to study Singapore’s low-cost housing schemes. While visiting Sabah in May, he is awarded the Sri Panglima Darjah Kinabalu. He stays in London from 24 October to 28 November for a medical check-up, returning to Malaysia via Paris, Belgrade, and Cairo.

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xxii Chronology

He receives the Honorary Fellowship Award from the Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM).

1973

He takes on the portfolio of Minister of Trade and Industry on 3 January, and in March, visits the Australian cities of Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, and Armidale with his wife and daughter Zailah, for talks regarding investments in Malaysia. He pays a visit to his alma mater, Queen’s College, University of Melbourne, where he is conferred with an honorary degree of doctor of laws. He also visits the University of New England in Armidale to see his son Tawfik. On 9 June, he is awarded a similar degree by Universiti Sains Malaysia. Malaysia’s Academy of Medicine makes him Honorary Member. On Thursday, 2 August, he passes away of a heart attack in his home at Maxwell Road (renamed Jalan Tun Dr Ismail in early 1974) in Kuala Lumpur. On Saturday, 4 August, after a state funeral, he becomes the first to be buried at the State Mausoleum.

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1972

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Review of The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (ISEAS, 2006)

This book has been a Malaysian publishing sensation. It was an instant bestseller. In launching its Malay language edition, the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, was moved to tears by remembrance of how much Tun [Dr] Ismail had contributed to the nation, and how much more still needed to be done. Tun Dr Ismail bin Dato Haji Abdul Rahman is a worthy subject for a political biography. After completing a medical degree in Australia, he became a Johor state councillor in 1948, joined the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1951, and then in 1953 became party representative in the Federal Legislative Council with portfolio responsibilities for Lands, Mines, and Communications. He continued to hold ministerial responsibilities thereafter through to [his] retirement in 1967. At the same time, he helped shape the UMNO independence struggle, was returned in the first national election in 1955, then became the first ambassador to the United States and the United Nations for over twelve months after independence in 1957. Returning to Malaya, he took on the External Affairs portfolio; then in November 1960 he began a long association with security issues, xxiii

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xxiv

Review of The Reluctant Politician

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first as minister of a new internal security ministry, then from February 1962, in home affairs. Forced to retire by ill health, he joined the boards of several multinationals, and gave speeches on the neutralization of Southeast Asia. Recalled to government after the tragic racial riots of May 13, 1969, he held leading positions during emergency rule in both the National Operations Council and the Cabinet, and became Deputy Prime Minister in September 1970. Seemingly destined for Malaysia’s highest political office, he was struck down by a heart attack in August 1973. It helps the biographer’s cause that apart from being a statesman, Tun [Dr] Ismail led a colourful and adventurous life. He was born into politics as a member of the Johor aristocracy. His father was the state treasurer of Johor, then first president of the Malayan Senate, and three brothers all had important political roles. He was brought up in a multiracial environment, establishing close friendships with the Kuok and Puthucheary families, which lasted a lifetime. A grandmother was half-Chinese, and his family adopted nine Chinese girls (a common practice in well-off Malay families in those days). Like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia’s first prime minister, he was something of a playboy in his youth, and keen on sports. He was always a dapper dresser, equipped with his signature Sherlock Holmes-style pipe, and an ardent golfer. One of those responsible for making golf diplomacy a Southeast Asian institution, he was actually a competent player, finishing with a handicap of 15. As a politician, Ismail was feared rather than loved. His unwillingness to court popularity led many Malays to consider him arrogant. He was a stickler for punctuality and performance, and did not suffer fools gladly. He was also an effective administrator. He stuck to the letter of the law and was incorruptible, refusing to make exceptions even to political bosses and family members.

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Review of The Reluctant Politician xxv

These events are well told in this biographer by ISEAS researcher, Ooi Kee Beng. Ooi draws insightfully on Ismail’s papers, including a detailed memoir prepared by him, archival material, and interviews with those who knew him years ago. The book is organized chronologically. It weaves Ismail’s career into the independence struggle, and politics of post-independence Malaya and Malaysia. This works most of the time, though it sometimes makes Ismail’s role in these events difficult to discern, and readers unfamiliar with Malaysian political history will find some developments hard to follow. For instance, there is much discussion about language and education issues, but no mention of the two major reports on education, the 1956 Razak report and the 1960 Rahman Talib report. Similarly, the New Economic Policy (NEP) is considered at some length, but without a clear explanation of what this actually entailed. (See further comments below.) Sometimes, also, the approach leads to [the] inclusion of too much unexplained or unassessed detail. There are a number of references to security relations with Thailand, an area of considerable current interest, but none really clarify the nature of this relationship. Ismail’s relationship with the Tunku is reported but not assessed. We are told, for instance, that Ismail was totally loyal to the Tunku, and tried to keep him in office for as long as possible (pp. 167, 210). But we also find Ismail critical of the Tunku for using all his skills to remain in power, at a time when he had “outlived his usefulness” (p. 254). Similarly, what are we to make of Ismail’s understanding of the reasons for May 13? Publicly, he blamed the Opposition parties. Privately, he blamed the withdrawal from Cabinet of the Malaysian Chinese Association. He is also reported as wanting to arrest UMNO leader Harun Idrus for “murder”, implying that Harun may have been responsible.

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There are, nonetheless, several key arguments that do emerge from this book. One is that Ismail set the trajectory of Malaysia foreign policy, particularly through proposals for the neutralization of Southeast Asia. Besides this, Ismail is lauded for his support for democracy, opposition to corruption, and support for multiracialism. Ismail undoubtedly made a major contribution to foreign policy. His neutralization proposal was subsequently adopted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN). This is indeed forward-looking. How it occurred to someone as sympathetic to the United States and allies and as anti-communist as Ismail remains something of a mystery. Ismail’s contribution to restoring democracy after May 13, his commitment to the rule of law, and his opposition to corruption are all well documented. So also is his commitment to the future in which all races could participate. In particular, Ooi notes Ismail’s belief that the Malay “special position” enshrined in the Constitution (Article 153) — providing for special quotas for Malays in the public service and educational institutions, and in allocations of scholarships and commercial licences — should not last forever. It should instead be viewed as similar to a handicap in golf, something that would eventually be removed altogether. Ooi argues further that Ismail believed positive discrimination provided under the NEP would be limited to twenty years (pp. 215–17). In all these areas, there is an implicit and sometimes explicit contrast with the views and actions of Ismail’s successors, particularly those of Prime Minister Mahathir. A foreword to the book by former Lord President of the Federal Court, Tun Haji Mohd Salleh, notes that had Ismail not died prematurely “the rule of law would not have suffered any

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Review of The Reluctant Politician xxvii

reversal and would have continued to safeguard the freedom and liberty of all citizens” (p. ix). The twenty-year period for the NEP is contrasted with later politicians who “have not recognized the time limit”, leaving Malaysia “unique today as a democracy that practices widespread preferential treatment in favour of the electorally dominant ethnic group” (p. 207) It is always difficult to argue about what might have been, but these judgements seem fair in a number of areas. Mahathir’s wholesale attack on the judiciary and sacking of Tun Haji Salleh in 1988 would have been unthinkable had Ismail retained influence. Similarly, none of his successors has demonstrated the same personal commitment to opposing corruption and balancing the interests of the different races. But did Ismail, as the work implies, envision a fundamentally different Malaysia from the one that now exists? On evidence within this book, that seems less likely. Ismail was a cautious democrat. He was a supporter of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and after May 13 defended something less than “wholesale Western style democracy” — arguments that could easily be mobilized to support major restrictions in the hands of someone less principled than Ismail. He commented favourably on Tun Razak’s announcement after succeeding the Tunku as prime minister that “the country was in UMNO’s hands and the others were only supporters” (p. 254). Ismail was not unique in speaking of the need for Malays eventually to throw off the shackles of their special position — Mahathir and current Prime Minister Abdullah have also done that. But, as noted, he always emphasized it was for the Malays to decide when that would be, and indeed in mid-1969 declared that these provisions had not been implemented seriously enough (p. 207). As to the claimed twenty-year limit on the NEP, the actual word that Ismail seems to have used was “target” — which he describes (slightly inaccurately) as 30 per

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cent Malay participation in commerce and industry (p. 256). The view that there should be a twenty-year target was widely held by Malay leaders involved in drawing up the NEP, and specifically included in the NEP outline contained in the Second Malaysia Plan (1971–75). But its purpose was to assure Malays that their economic interests would be promoted, not to limit the period of positive discrimination. This book has tapped into deep current Malaysian concerns about issues such as democracy, corruption, and multiculturalism. In setting out the views and contributions in these areas of a distinguished founding father, it has made a significant contribution to this debate.

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John Funston (Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU, Canberra). Published in Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 80, part 2, no. 293 (December 2007): 89–91.

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Drifting into Politics: The Unfinished Memoirs of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman

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CHAPTER ONE

One of my earliest recollections of childhood days was a journey, which my parents and I made to Singapore. There was no causeway then across the Straits of Johor. We had to get into a ferry which carried us across to the train at Woodlands. The train journey from Woodlands to the city of Singapore took about an hour. When we landed at Singapore city, my parents hired a horse and carriage. Our journey to my parent’s friend’s house was a musical one, because the bells tied to the horses’ heads and bodies jingled as they trotted along. My father’s friend was a Chinese gentleman. His house in Singapore city was a shophouse type of building but to me, as a child, it appeared as a big, spacious building. The ground floor was used as a garage and it was full of cars. He was definitely a wealthy Chinese at that time, but years later when I grew up, I met him again. He had lost everything on tin mining. Ours was a unique family. My father1 was reserved and ­ hardly talked to anyone of us, and when we wanted to ask him for something, either money or some presents, we had to write to him. My memory of my mother,2 who died when she was in her early forties, is that of a vivacious woman, warm-hearted and great. She hardly knew any English, but she always surprised me by holding conversations with a lady friend of 3

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the family, who only spoke English, for hours on end. Although there were already nine of us in the family — four boys 3 and five girls4 — both my parents were very fond of taking in Chinese girls as adopted children. I can only remember nine of them. They were brought up no different from my sisters, enjoying the same amenities, and being taught together how to cook and look after the house. They all married well and no one looking at them now could imagine that they were children of Chinese parents. My paternal grandmother was very fond of travelling and this was made possible because she had many married daughters whose husbands were posted in many faraway places in the State of Johor and also because she enjoyed visiting her other relatives.5 She had managed to persuade my parents to let

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her look after me and hence I was nearly always taken by her on these trips, at the expense of my attendance at school. My earliest friends were therefore my relatives, and it was not until I was in school that I made friends with other boys. Until I joined secondary school, my friends were all Malays, because in those days, boys of different nationalities went to different schools in which their own language was the medium of instruction. In the secondary schools maintained by the Government, the medium of instruction was English. It was in the secondary school in my own state6 that I began to mix with boys of all races. I was a voracious reader and was very fond of reading books on philosophy and other books, which were locally known as “Serious Books”, that is, books which were not based on fiction. I began to admire English ways and even formed my own interpretation of what they should be. I think those early conceptions of what I thought English ways should be are responsible for some of the characteristics which, I always

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Chapter One

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think, make me different from other Malays, although I always got on well with the latter. I think this was because in those days, the non-Malay girls — especially the Chinese girls — had more freedom than those of other races. I enjoy the company of the opposite sex and since it was not possible to find them among my own race, I began to get closer and closer to my non-Malay friends. I am convinced that this early mingling with the other races during the most impressionable stage of my life had a lot to do with my non-racial outlook. Our family was unique among the Malay families, in the sense that my father was prepared to make financial sacrifices to give his children the best education. As a family, my brothers, sisters and I were not brilliant, but we made up for the lack of it by each of us possessing an insatiable ambition to get on in life. Except for two of my sisters, one of whom went to Australia to study Domestic Science on a State scholarship, all the others were given tertiary education at my father’s expense, and this was made possible largely because my father owned a medium-sized rubber estate. I was sent to Australia to complete my medical studies at Melbourne University. My late elder brother went to Cambridge to graduate with Honours in Law and was called to the Bar at Middle Temple.7 My second brother was also called to the Bar at Middle Temple.8 My third brother studied Economics at Melbourne University.9 My fourth sister graduated in Medicine in London10 and my youngest sister graduated in Domestic Science in Melbourne.11 The only children in the family who were not sent abroad were my first,12 second13 and third sisters. The first two did not go to English ­school because they grew up in a period when it was not the custom to send girls to any school, let alone an English school which in Johor Bahru at that time was run by Catholic nuns. My third sister who was very

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bright and would have done well had she gone abroad for higher studies, lost her opportunity to do so because of the Japanese occupation of Malaya.14 My father was therefore ahead of his time as far as the Malays were concerned. The Indians and Chinese had, of course, been sending their sons abroad as soon as they amassed enough wealth to do so. But then my father was a unique Malay in many ways. He was the only survivor of two children of my grandfather15 by his first marriage. He was one of a handful of Malays who went to Raffles College in Singapore daily from Johor Bahru to continue his secondary education. Although a bright student, he was bypassed by the Johor Government when it sent Malay students to England for higher education. It may have been a great disappointment to him because he had set his heart to do Law.16 Instead, he worked in the British Adviser’s office in Johor Bahru where his ability and brilliance often caught the attention of the British Adviser. His promotion in the service was rapid, but he never became the Menteri Besar of Johor mainly because he was always a “Lone Wolf” and refused to indulge in intrigues.17 Since Merdeka, our family has had the distinction of producing two Ministers in the Cabinet and the First President of the Senate. As mentioned elsewhere, I successively held several ministries as did my late brother Suleiman. My father was elected by the Johor State Assembly to the Senate and the Senate in turn elected him the First President. As a family, we took great interest in the movement for Independence. In fact, during the days of the Malayan Union, when the Malays were agitating against the British, my father, my late brother, and my brother-in-law were suspended from Government service because of their political activities.18 Although we were all interested in politics, as brothers we held

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independent views on politics and we could argue vehemently without affecting our personal relationship. In Johor, there were two families who were well respected because of their service to the State and who were politically active. They were my own and Dato Onn’s family.19 Dato Onn’s family was also unique in many ways. As a family which had produced successive Menteris Besar of Johor, it was naturally the premier family in Johor. The family and branches of the family have produced many eminent men and women, but the most famous of them was, of course, Dato Onn. Dato Onn was a unique man. He was always fearless both morally and physically and incredibly stubborn. He was the idol of the Johor people. Handsome, dashing, and fearless, he was the envy of all. It would take a biographer to do full justice to him and here, I would only like to describe him as I knew him. Like all others, I was a great admirer of his. He was a great man and the nation should be grateful to him for having mobilized Malay nationalism which was the spearhead to Malaya’s independence. His great fault was, of course, his ambivalence Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

towards independence.

Notes  1. Abdul Rahman bin Yassin (1890–1970) was employed with the Land Office in Johor when Ismail was born in November 1915.   2. Zahara binte Abu Bakar was a cousin of Abdul Rahman.   3. Suleiman, Ismail, Abdullah, and Yassin.   4. Khatijah, Esah, Rafeah, Zubaidah, and Fatimah.   5. This is not strictly correct. Abdul Rahman is described later as the only survivor of two children from his father’s first marriage. The paternal grandmother referred to here was Mohamed Yassin’s deceased wife’s younger sister whom he subsequently married.

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Drifting into Politics Norashikin, Ismail’s wife is her granddaughter as well. Ismail was brought up by her because his own mother, due to bad health, could not take on that responsibility fully. She subsequently recovered from her ailment.

  6. The English College, Johor Bahru. The school records show that his interests also lay in sports. In spite of a congenital heart problem, he played soccer, rugby, and boxing. Apart from his interest in philosophy, he later grew to like the stories of Sherlock Holmes, which may account for his pipe-sporting habits. His flair for deduction was probably inspired by his readings.  7. Suleiman, together with Ismail, joined politics and became a Minister in the first Cabinet. He died of a heart attack while giving a speech as his country’s High Commissioner to Australia.  8. Abdullah ran a legal practice in Johor Bahru and was Chairman of the Malaysian Bar Council. He served Johor as Senator and as Chairman of the Johor Tenggara Authority (a body responsible for the development of central Johor).  9. Mohamed Yassin served as UMNO Secretary-General in its early days. Now in business, he was at one time in the Central Bank and also served as Assemblyman in the Johor State Legislature. 10. Subaidah was a doctor in Johor Bahru. She was married to Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

Mohamed Tarmizi, an engineer. 11. Fatimah taught Domestic Science at a girls’ school in Johor Bahru. 12. Khatijah married Awang bin Hassan, a medical practitioner who later became Member of Parliament for Muar Selatan and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives. She accompanied him to Australia when he was appointed High Commissioner. They later moved to Penang when Awang bin Hassan was made state governor. 13. Esah is the widow of the late Tan Sri Wan Hamzah, a former Director of Customs and Excise and a former Chairman of Oriental Bank. 14. While Abdul Rahman gave his sons the best possible education, he compensated his daughters by giving them land. Rafeah

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married her second cousin, Kamaluddin, and had talented sons who now occupy important and prominent positions in politics, administration, and law. 15. Mohamed Yassin bin Ahat was a government officer and the son of Orang Kaya Ahat of Padang Muar. Abdul Rahman had a sister Anima who died in her youth. 16. Abdul Rahman also attended the Muar High School — the first English school in Muar — as well as Raffles Insti­ tution in Singapore. One of his teachers was Tan Cheng Lock, one of the founders of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). Mohamed Yassin could not afford to send his son overseas for further studies. As a supplement to his formal education in Muar and Singapore, Ismail’s father taught himself beyond the formal curricula and left Raffles Institution with a brilliant record. He never forgot the value of a good education and passed on to his sons the gift his father could not afford for him. 17. In 1909, he worked as a clerk in the legal firm of Rodyck & Davidson, who were advisers to the Johor Government. In 1910, he became Chief Clerk to the General Adviser and Commissioner of Lands. Four years later, he was Deputy Registrar of Deeds at the Land Office. From 1919, he was Assistant Collector of Land Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

Revenue for Johor Bahru and Segamat until 1924 when he was promoted to the post of Collector, the first Malay to hold that position. He held that post for eight years and became Member of the Council of the State in 1932. In August 1935, he was State Treasurer. Ironically, when his contemporaries returned from studies abroad, they found themselves serving under him. 18. This was over Sultan Ibrahim of Johor signing, in secret, the MacMichael Agreement, a treaty which was to have been the basis of the short-lived Malayan Union. Dato Abdul Rahman (President of the Persatuan Melayu Johor), Suleiman, and Dr Awang bin Hassan — leaders of the “Johor Conspiracy” — had, on 2 February 1946, organized a protest meeting at the Abu Bakar Mosque in Johor Bahru. They and four others also issued a pamphlet criticizing

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Drifting into Politics the Sultan on this matter. They were suspended from duties on 19 February 1946 for six months. The others who were suspended were Haji Hassan bin Haji Yunus (who later became Menteri Besar of Johor), Kosal bin Abdul Rahman, Ahmad bin Suleiman, and Sapiah bte Suleiman.

19. The two families are related through marriage at various levels. Firstly, in September 1937, Dato Abdul Rahman (by then a widower) married Kamariah binti Jaafar, daughter of Dato Jaafar bin Haji Mohamed (the first Menteri Besar of Johor) and a sister of Onn bin Jaafar at the residence of Dato Mohamed Salleh, the State Secretary, whose wife was a sister of the bride. Dato Abdul Rahman, at that time, was State Treasurer. The marriage was at the instigation of the Sultan of Johor. Of the Councillors, Abdul Rahman was the only unattached person. One of Sultan Ibrahim’s aims was to unite the Johor aristocracy through marriage as a guarantee of support for the throne. However, as shown in the above-mentioned protest, such a union did not always prevent protests against the Sultan’s actions. Datin Kamariah died in February 1959. There were no children by this marriage. Secondly, Dr Ismail married Norashikin binte Dato Mohamed Seth, daughter of the Assistant State Secretary of Johor and whose stepmother Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

was a daughter of Onn bin Jaafar and half-sister to Datuk Hussein bin Onn. Norashikin’s brother, Mohamed Ghazali, who became Chief of the Armed Forces, married Hussein bin Onn’s youngest sister. Thirdly, Dr Awang bin Hassan’s son, Dr Yahya, married Hussein Onn’s daughter, Dr Suraya Hani.

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CHAPTER TWO

I entered the medical college in Singapore ill-prepared for it. The only students who were prepared were from schools such as the Penang Free School, the St. John’s and Victoria Institutions in Kuala Lumpur, and the Raffles Institution and Anglo-Chinese School of Singapore. These students were taught physics and chemistry in school, two subjects which were and still are essential for first year study in medicine. As for myself, when I first attended lectures in physics and chemistry, I did not even know what friction or oxygen meant. I was very frustrated and became even more so later on when I learnt that the annual examinations were held not only on a competitive basis, but also in such a way that only a certain number of students would be allowed to progress to the next stage. In addition to this restrictive practice on academic life, there were other restrictions which were peculiar only to centres of higher learning in the colonies. Students in medical school in Singapore were not treated as grown-ups but rather as schoolchildren. It was therefore not surprising that the professors adopted the attitude of schoolmasters towards their students who, in turn, were expected to behave like schoolchildren. An example was their having to ask the permission of the professor if they ever needed to perform a simple act. There was one amusing incident I can recall. It was my practice, whenever I could afford it, to go with a few friends to a cabaret where we 11

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danced with the hostesses by paying with coupons. Invariably, there was strong competition to dance with the currently popular hostesses. Clients were allowed to approach the hostesses only when the music began to play. Consequently, at the first sound of the band playing, there was a mad rush in the direction of the popular hostesses. One evening, I was in the midst of one of these rushes. To my surprise, I found myself standing directly in front of the most popular hostess. As I was dancing away I happened to look behind and saw a face red with anger. It was the face of one of my professors, who had expected me to step aside and give way to him to dance with the hostess. The next day happened to be the day on which I had to present myself to the professor for an oral examination on the anatomy of bones. He naturally gave me a difficult bone to identify and describe and when I could not, he made the sarcastic remark that if I were to concentrate more on bone anatomy rather than surface anatomy I would make a success of myself as a medical student. This infuriated me so much that I retorted that as far as surface anatomy was concerned, I could give him a whole lecture on it. Needless to say this was held against me when the time came for me to sit for the annual examination in anatomy. My days at the medical college came to a dramatic end. I went in as a scholar from my home state and I had to appear periodically before the state chief medical officer to explain my progress or — as the case was now — my lack of progress. One day after the third year annual examinations, I had to appear and explain why I failed. Not only was the official academic record read out to me but a detailed history of my personal life as well, including the number of times I spent at the cabaret during the previous year. This angered me so much that I told him that I was no longer prepared to continue my studies in what was obviously a college run by the Gestapo.

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Chapter Two

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My decision to go to Australia was a fortuitous one. I unsuccessfully tried for a place in Hong Kong. Someone suggested Rangoon but I was not enamoured of the idea. So I tried for Australia. My trip to Australia was a unique one in many ways. I had not received a reply from the Australian Government to my letter asking for permission to stay and study at the University of Melbourne. All I had were papers from the Registrar of that University stating that I had been accepted into the Faculty of Medicine. The shipping line naturally would not take the responsibility of accepting me as a passenger to Melbourne because without immigration permission to land in Melbourne, it would have to transport me back to Malaya at its own expense. I offered the solution by paying for a return passage from Malaya to Melbourne. I was travelling in tourist class and for the voyage from Singapore to Darwin, there were only four of us — two Scottish planters from India, an Indian magician, and me. I shared a cabin with the magician. He was a comical man. Tall, with a turban on his head and eyes the size of ping pong balls which sparkled with humour. He was a delightful companion. He would begin the day with a heavy breakfast by eating his way through the menu instead of, as is customary, choosing only one dish. This performance was repeated at lunch and dinner. In other words, food flowed through his gustatory organs like magic. He also told me that he was one of the very few men who could make Hitler laugh. He had performed in Berlin in front of Hitler. One of his acts consisted of him producing Deutschmarks from nowhere and on seeing this, Hitler laughed and wanted to consign him to the mint. Somehow he managed to wriggle himself out of this dilemma.

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I arrived in Melbourne on 4 July. Surprisingly enough I was easily cleared by the immigration officers. I had not made any hotel bookings arid when I got into a taxi, I just asked the driver to take me to a place where I could get a room. I managed to get into The New Treasury Hotel in Spring Street. The next day, I took a taxi to the University. The Registrar informed me that the University was not prepared to credit me for the three years which I had spent in Singapore; instead, it would grant me credit for one year as a medical student but I would have to sit for the first year examinations at the end of the year. I had no alternative but to accept these conditions even though it meant that I had wasted three years of my life and that I had to pass their first year medical examinations after only three months of study. That I managed to pass within the stipulated time speaks much for the teaching of Melbourne University. Life at the University of Melbourne was very unlike life at the Medical College in Singapore. Where there was bullying in Singapore, there was in Melbourne an atmosphere of equality Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

between professors and students; where there was a colonial type of atmosphere in Singapore, there was an atmosphere of freedom in Melbourne.1 I regarded my three years in Singapore as years of drudgery while the years in Melbourne were the happiest in my life. It was at the University of Melbourne that I managed to find ways and means to express myself. My attitude towards the opposite sex was very different from that held by many Asians of my time. While I had always been attracted by the act of sex, I regarded it not as an end in itself. I often wondered how my friends could treat sex as though it were the same as the act of eating. That they can do it without being emotionally involved

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Chapter Two

15

seems quite practical to me and yet I cannot see it in this way. I regard sex as the finest expression of one’s love for the opposite sex. Emotion plays a very important part. For example, I do not think I could ever derive real satisfaction from prostitutes. Sometimes, when I look back to the days when I thought of patronizing the prostitutes, I would have struck them as a comical figure. What they want is money for goods delivered; i want some expression of love. It was not until I was in Australia that I managed to get any sexual satisfaction. There were three girls in my life in Australia; we separated in the end for various reasons. The first was a cultured, vivacious girl from a middle class family. We were lovers for about a year. We separated because our clandestine affair was reported to the girl’s mother by a mutual friend, a fellow Malayan student. We finally broke off because neither of us was financially independent enough to marry. The second was a nurse. Our relationship was not deep. We were drawn together because of our related professions and we were not surprised when it ended. The third was a Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

German girl. Our affair was based on intellect. It was a happy moment in my life. Our love was not clandestine. The girl’s parents knew of it and they appreciated the situation. We broke off because we both realized that mixed marriages do not often succeed. It was because of these happy episodes in my youth, when love was fulfilled for its own sake that my marriage owes its success. My wife was educated only up to secondary school level and was denied a higher education because of her marriage to me. We have been married for seventeen years and love has never dimmed but rather has become more bright as the years went on.

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Note 1. During his stay in Australia, he was approached by British Intelligence who, planning to conduct a summary raid on Singapore, needed someone who was familiar with the area to assist it. Ismail was offered money in exchange for information. Not knowing how to respond, he consulted his guardian who told him to let the war take care of itself and that he should concentrate on his medical studies (Source: Dr Awang bin Hassan, June 1981). During this time, his political persuasions leaned left. A contemporary, Dr Elaine Wong, relates a time when he was a member of the Australian Labour Party and was seen at the head of a procession organized by the ALP, linking arms with ALP

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members.

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CHAPTER THree

The Malaya I returned to after five years in Australia was totally different from the Malaya I left behind. Before the war, politics was discussed among the select few. Immediately after the war, political feeling engulfed Malaya like a fire engulfs a forest on a hot, dry day. When I returned on 4 July 1945, the first person I met was my eldest brother. He attracted not only my attention, but also that of others on board the ship by the way he dressed. Other people on the wharf were dressed in shabby shirts and crumpled trousers while he was immaculately dressed in white sharkskin Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

complete with shirt and tie to match. His name was Suleiman. He was later to distinguish himself as the man who dared to challenge and defeat Dato Onn bin Ja’afar at the first national elections in 1955. After his victory, Suleiman held the attention of Tunku Abdul Rahman who treated him with great affection until he died. The Tunku made him a minister in successive alliance governments and when Suleiman’s health was failing, he requested the Tunku to send him to Australia as High Commissioner. He died in harness, in Australia, while delivering an important speech on Malaysia. It was Suleiman who briefed me on the controversy over the Malayan Union. The spearhead of attack against the Malayan Union was the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). In fact, 17

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UMNO owes its birth to the Malayan Union.1 As the Malays saw it, the Malayan Union was designed to deprive the Malays of their rights in the country, first by the abolition of the Malay Sultanate and second by the abolition of the special status accorded to the Malays. Dato Onn united most of the Malays under him in UMNO and fought against the Malayan Union by political means. Other Malays, especially those from Johor, thought that the opposition should be based on legal grounds. Their reasoning was based on the constitution of the Malay states which existed prior to the war. In the case of Johor, it was expressly stated in the constitution that the Sultan had no right to sign away the sovereignty of the State to any power and that if he did so, he automatically divested himself of all power conferred on him by the constitution: in other words, by his own action he had abdicated, and the sovereignty of the state reverted to the people. It was obvious that this legal reasoning, though it had the merit of logic, was not easily understood by the ordinary man and therefore difficult to make use of to mobilize mass Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

support.2 In the meantime, opposition to the Malayan Union on political grounds under the dynamic leadership of Dato Onn was mounting, culminating in the Federation of Malaya Agreement of 1948.3 The Federation of Malaya Agreement was a compromise and like all compromises, it was not received with satisfaction by all. Those who opposed the Malayan Union on legal grounds accepted it under protest, reserving their right to their own stand; the extremists joined the communists and went into the jungle; the leftists regarded it as a sell-out and formed opposition parties that worked with the communists.

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Chapter Three

19

Under the Federation of Malaya Agreement, all seats to the Federal and State Legislature were nominated. Dato Onn offered me a seat in the State Legislature of Johor but before I discuss the outcome, it is important for me, at this stage, to relate my own thinking on the whole political scene in Malaya during that period.

Notes 1. On 1 March 1946, forty-one Malay associations met and formed UMNO. They included mainly members of the elite from the Unfederated Malay States (UMS) and the Federated Malay States (FMS). 2. Clause 15 of the Johor Constitution of 1894 prohibits the Ruler from dividing or handing over the State and territories of Johor to any foreign power without the consent of the State Council. On 20 October 1945, Sultan Ibrahim volun­ tarily signed the MacMichael Agreement without consulting his Councillors. In July 1946, five months after the Abu Bakar Mosque protest, Abdul Rahman wrote to the Resident Commissioner of Johor:

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“To a Muslim, loyalty is reciprocal. The fact that the Malays have hitherto, through ignorance or otherwise, been blindly obedient does not reduce loyalty to a one-sided affair.” (RCJ No. 217/46: “Dato Abdul Rahman to the Resident Commissioner, Johore, July 8, 1946”, cited in A.J. Stockwell, British Policy and Malay Politics During the Malayan Union Experiment 1942–1948. Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Monograph No. 8 MBRAS 1979.) 3. The difference was one of emphasis on the Sultan’s respon­sibility to his subjects, whether it lay in the community or above the community. The failure of the Malayan Union was due in part to a lack of experienced officers. The Malayan Union affected UMS more than FMS — the elite of the UMS were stronger. Onn, being Menteri Besar (MB, Chief Minister) of Johor was more a Records

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20

Drifting into Politics Officer than Executive, a reason perhaps for his opposition to the Union. Onn’s Constitutional Committee of 1947 drafted a Model State Constitution based on the pre-war Johor Constitution which was intended to provide each Malay State with safeguards against both royal absolutism and British intervention and which would ensure the participation of the Malays in government by the

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creation of an MB and a State Secretary.

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CHAPTER Four

Politics in Malaya in the Immediate Post-war Period A few weeks after my return from Australia, I already had the feel of politics in Malaya.1 My analysis of the events, occurring at that time was as follows: there was an awakening among countries under colonial rule after the Second World War. Nationalism, which was suppressed by the colonial powers before World War II, seized the opportunity created by the havoc and dismay of war to rear its head. It did so in Southeast Asia and its manifestations were so clear that those who were keen Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

observers could not fail to see them. Malaya was heading for independence, of this I was certain. What I was not certain of was how long it would be before she finally achieved it. As I saw it, the pace would be dictated by the national leaders while the British would try their best to thwart them. There was not a doubt that the man of the moment then was Dato Onn. He had mobilized Malay nationalism and directed it against the British. The question was how far he was prepared to go against the British — would he be prepared to lead the country to full independence or would he stop once Malay rights were restored? As a Malay leader, he was brilliant, and would have been eminently successful if the Malays formed 21

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an absolute majority in this country. He was not, however, big enough to face the realities of Malayan politics. Although towards the peak of his career he tried a Malayan solution rather than a Malay solution to the political situation in Malaya, he was not successful because he did not believe in what he was doing. At this time, there were about half a dozen returned students living in and near Johor Bahru, including myself. We called our group “The Malay Graduates’ Association”. We used to meet fairly regularly to discuss politics. I usually get inspiration and ideas during the course of discussion and it was during such an occasion that this thought passed through my mind: I felt that if intellectuals such as ourselves wanted to play a role in the movement for independence, we had to be active in the right way and not be passive. It was impossible to influence people to support the independence movement merely by writing articles because time was against it and in any case, all the newspapers that enjoyed a wide circulation were not keen to do the wrong thing against the government in power. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

It was also impractical for the intellectuals to form their own political party because such a party would not get mass support. The only alternative was to join a political party that already had mass support and which could be directed to fight for the independence of the country. I also believed that the only leadership acceptable to the people at that time was one that was willing to lead the country to independence. I was further convinced that the only way to gain independence was by constitutional means and that any other way would be detrimental to the interest of Malaya. The reasons were obvious: first, the United Kingdom was committed to the policy of granting independence to her colonies and

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Chapter Four

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continuance of this policy was inevitable after Britain agreed to the indepen­dence of India, Burma, Ceylon, and Ghana; second, in the case of Malaya, Britain had to grant independence because if she did not do so, it would be tantamount to handing the country over to communism which at that time was waging armed warfare against the colonial government. Having said the above, I would like to make it clear that all the same Britain, if she could, would have been pleased to delay the granting of independence. She would not grant independence unless circumstances, and not force, made her do so. It was for this reason that the British supported Dato Onn and UMNO when he and the party proclaimed and practised the policy of Hidup Melayu — Long Live the Malays. This was a policy which would have been a great bulwark against the independence movement if the British had succeeded in encouraging it. It was a policy that played on the fears of the Malays for the Chinese. Unfortunately for the British, even the stature of Dato Onn among the Malays could not stem the tide of national feeling demanding independence. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

The reasons for Dato Onn’s departure from UMNO have been and still are the subject of controversy and speculation. According to Dato Onn himself, he left the party because he could not persuade the Malays to accept his non-racial policies. As evidence of this, Dato Onn formed a non-racial party, the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP), as soon as he left UMNO. I think that in order to better understand Dato Onn and the reason he was called the “Stormy Petrel” of Malayan politics, we must study his political career. Dato Onn was descended from a distinguished family from the State of Johor. His father, his brother, and his half-brother had all been Mentris Besar (Chief Ministers) of Johor at one

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time or another. He was a brilliant speaker, fluent both in Malay and English, although he had never attended Malay school. He had distinguished himself as a journalist. He was noted for being outspoken, blunt, and unorthodox in his views on politics and in his pursuit of women. He was secretive and fond of springing surprises on friend and foe. His chance to display his talent as a politician and leader came during the period immediately after the War. He mobilized the spirit of nationalism among the Malays and united them in opposition to the Malayan Union. When he had succeeded in this objective, he was reluctant to proceed further and fight for the independence of the country. The reason was his fear of the Chinese: he was afraid that in an independent Malaya, the Chinese with their wealth and intellectual power would submerge the Malays. His fear was shared by many Malays, especially the conservative and the privileged. Dato Onn was therefore content to restore the rights of the Malays under British colonialism. He achieved this but in doing so, he had to contend with the dissatisfaction of the Chinese.2 Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

At that time, Malaya was under siege from militant communism which was exploiting Chinese dissatisfaction for its own ends. Under pressure from the British, Dato Onn was at first forced to yield to Chinese demands on the issue of citizenship and language and later, when this was not sufficient, he was persuaded by the British to give in on the political field by opening the doors of UMNO to the non-Malays, especially the Chinese. When he failed to succeed in this last objective, he resigned on the mistaken premise that without him, UMNO would fade away. He was also confident that with his stature, he could form a non-racial party.3

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Chapter Four

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Notes 1. “What made me go into politics? I have always been interested in it. I returned at the crucial moment when there was a political awakening. At Queen’s College, Melbourne University, there were students from the Theological, Arts and Engineering faculties and there was a diversity of political views. It stimulated interest.” (Interview with Harry Miller in the Malayan Monthly, November 1957). 2. “I believe the Malays should be given a certain amount of handicap: it is necessary to arouse interest in themselves. Their salvation in the end depends on themselves. Onn’s policy was that the position of the Malays could be safeguarded by maintaining Malaya as a colony. I didn’t think this would do the Malays any good.” (Interview with Harry Miller in the Malayan Monthly, November 1957). 3. “Why didn’t the Malays join the IMP? Very simple. They idolised Onn but he constantly said ‘I don’t want you. UMNO is useless to me.’ That was fatal. Once you scorn the Malays, you are no longer in their good books.” (Interview with Harry Miller in the Malayan

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Monthly, November 1957).

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CHAPTER Five

When Dato Onn left the party, the leadership fell into the hands of Tunku Abdul Rahman who, it is commonly believed, was persuaded by Tun Razak to accept the leadership.1 The first time I met the Tunku was in Kuala Lumpur when my wife and I were on our way to Penang for our honeymoon. On one of the evenings when we were in Kuala Lumpur, we were invited by my friend, Mr Eugene Seow, who was an architectural student with me in Australia, to his flat. When we arrived, we saw a man drinking gin in the corner. We were introduced to him and I was struck by his friendliness, charm, and unassuming ways. Without hesitation, he invited all of us to spend the evening with him at the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club. He kept us there until he was told that we were on honeymoon. In typical fashion he bundled us off telling us that we had no business being on the dance floor so late when we should be in bed enjoying our honeymoon. When the Tunku took over the leadership of UMNO, the Malay Graduates’ Association received a message from him asking it to nominate a member to serve on the Central Executive Committee of the party and he mentioned his preference for me. I was at this time an established medical practitioner in Johor Bahru and a member of the Johor State Council, the only one who was not an UMNO member: I was 26

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Chapter Five

27

nominated a member of the Council on the establishment of the Federation of Malaya in 1948. One of the first things I did in the Council was to oppose the establishment of the Federation because it was constitutionally illegal, especially with regard to the Johor Constitution and I pointed out that I wanted my objection recorded in the proceedings of the Council. It was also while I was a member of the Council that Dato Onn tried to persuade me to join UMNO and said that if I agreed to do so, he would nominate me as a member of the Federal Legislative Council. I tried to reject him at first by politely stating that I was not prepared to sacrifice my medical practice to become a full-time politician. However, when he said that on the contrary, my medical practice would benefit by my being on the Federal Legislative Council, I decided to tell him my true reasons: I told him that I could not join UMNO because the party under his leadership would not fight for independence and that I was only prepared to give up my medical practice to join politics on the issue of independence. Therefore, when the Tunku said he wanted me to serve on the party’s Executive Committee, he was not unaware of my activities in politics. In any case, the other members of the Association were not prepared to sacrifice their careers and so they approved my nomination. I remember staying at the Coliseum Hotel in Batu Road in Kuala Lumpur when I travelled up to attend my first meeting. Others who stayed there with me were Tun (then Dato) Razak, Syed Nasir, and a few other members of the Committee. Before proceeding to Tunku’s house, there was a preliminary discussion as to the fate of the Central Executive members who were still supporters of Dato Onn but who refused to resign from UMNO. To me, their motive for not resigning was all too obvious: they were trying to sabotage the party from within. I was all for expelling

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Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

them there and then but Syed Nasir and Razak opted for a more diplomatic solution. When we arrived at the Tunku’s residence (he was then still living in Government quarters: a modest wooden house situated on one of the roads off Circular Road), we found a group of people already there. It was the type of group that one always associates with the Tunku and also the type that would often be seen around him in the future. It consisted of young men and old men; the religious and the not-so-religious. Some, like the Central Executive members, had come by invitation; others had invited themselves. Some would remain in the lounge throughout while others would sneak out quietly to the kitchen to take a quick nip of brandy and whisky before wandering back to the lounge. The question as to what tactics should be adopted at the Central Executive Committee Meeting was not discussed by all the members sitting down and agreeing deliberately and systematically but rather in snatches with each person discussing his point of view with the person nearest to him. Somehow or other, an impression was gained that the question of tactic had been settled. My first meeting as a member of the Central Executive Committee was a memorable one. It took place at Hotel Majestic which, in the early 1950s, was one of the few top class hotels in Malaya. The secretary of the meeting was Encik Hussein Onn. Among the other ardent supporters of Dato Onn attending the meeting were Datin Puteh Mariah, Tuan Haji Ahmad Fuad, and the late Encik Nasruddin. The present speaker of Parliament [1964–74], Dato Yusuf, was also present. The Tunku gave the impression that he was not familiar with the procedure of conducting a meeting. Whether this was genuine ignorance or pretence, I never knew since I, like so many others, could never be sure when the Tunku on such

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an occasion was serious and when he was not. At this meeting, Hussein Onn had to tell him exactly what to do at any particular moment. The most important item at that meeting was, of course, the future of the members who were loyal to Dato Onn but preferred to stay in the Central Executive. I spoke first by saying that they could not serve two men at the same time — it was either the Tunku or Dato Onn and those who owed loyalty to Dato Onn should tender their resignation. If they refused to do so, they were to be expelled. I was supported in this by Tuan Syed Omar, the late Mentri Besar of Kedah. I forget now how the meeting ended, but I knew that I had, at that meeting, sown the seeds of future lines of action by the party: never compromise on matters of principle.

Note 1. See Tunku Abdul Rahman’s “The Path to Independence”, in As a Matter of Interest (Malaysia: Heinemann Asia, 1981): “The Malays from all over the Peninsula including some prominent Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

leaders such as Tun Razak, Sheikh Ahmad of Perlis and a few others who know me personally asked me to take over the leadership. But what really influenced me was the Malay Graduates’ Association led by Dr Ismail and Datuk Suleiman, his brother, who promised all out support for me.”

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CHAPTER SIX

.

The first couple of years of the Tunku’s leadership were lean years indeed. I remember a few months after he became leader, he came to Johor Bahru and we had dinner at Dato Sardon Jubir’s house. The Tunku was in a despondent mood. He said the party was in disarray, there was no money, and he had already started to sell his property to replenish the dwindling funds, and that the members were apathetic. My brother Suleiman suggested that he should combine his leadership with his legal practice. The Tunku said that the leadership of the party was a full-time job and that if he had to do it, he must do it properly. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

This is typical of the Tunku’s philosophy: if he undertook a task, he would pursue it single-mindedly to the exclusion of other activities. I told the Tunku not to give up and that I was confident that he would achieve independence for the country. Later, the Tunku and his family came to Johor Bahru which, at that time, was where UMNO had its headquarters. He had to live in a house in Kampong Kubor. It was an ordinary kampong house and it must have been terribly inconvenient for him and his family to adapt themselves to this new mode of living. His only daughter, who was learning hairdressing, had to walk no less than three miles daily to the salon.

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Chapter Six

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Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

I was then so engrossed in my political activities that I became interested in analysing the Tunku’s method of working. Looking back now, his political philosophy and style never changed throughout his career as a politician. He knew that the first weakness of UMNO that had to be remedied was its propaganda. UMNO had no newspaper backing and its own newspaper Suara Merdeka (Voice of Independence) hardly had any circulation at all. There were two major tasks during the first few months of Tunku’s leadership. First, the party had to be strengthened and second, there had to be a plan for the achievement of independence. After months of hard work, we succeeded in finally purging UMNO of those party leaders who were loyal to Dato Onn and those whose objective in remaining in the party was to sabotage the party from within. The hardest man to get rid of was the late Dato Panglima Bukit Gantang. He was a remarkable man, full of personality, and had a firm control of his state, Perak. Finally we succeeded in expelling even him from the party. In the meanwhile, the Tunku was building himself as an UMNO leader. As a matter of fact, there really was nothing for him to build because his own personality was such that he evoked sympathy and loyalty wherever he went and in the people he met. His greatest asset was that he managed to be himself under all circumstances, no matter where he was, be it the palace or the kampong, in high or low society, whether among the rich or the poor. This quality of his is still with him. People thus began to know him as a person with faults as well as virtues. His blunders — of which there were many — used to shock people at first but as time went on, people got used to him and they forgave him because he was great enough to

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32

Drifting into Politics

admit his faults in public and make his apologies in public. These lapses of his — the blunders and the mistakes — used to disarm many people who thought of him as a well-meaning leader with little brains. I remember people saying that [Governor-General] Malcolm MacDonald once thought of the Tunku as an unstable leader. However, beneath the superfi­ciality and the unimpressiveness lies a subtle brain which approaches political problems differently from others and whose answer to those problems appears so naive that at first, many people would laugh but which once acted upon, proved effective and practical. The first thing he did in Johor was to revitalize Suara Merdeka, the official organ of UMNO. So successful was he that the circulation of this publication rose tremendously within a short period of time. He toured the country incessantly and always took up popular grievances whenever he came across them. The plight of detainees was one of the first causes he took up, but he was always careful to distinguish between those who were genuine communists and those who were not. He never approved of the violent methods adopted by those nationalists in their struggle for independence, but he never failed to fight for them because they were inspired by nationalism. In fact, it was one of my duties, and also that of other party leaders, to visit detention camps as often as we could and of course, we saw to it that much publicity was given. The Tunku also realized that the main support for the party came from the conservative middle class Malays who were very devoted to Islam and things Islamic. His sympathy for the victims of the Maria Hertogh Riots and his untiring efforts to secure the release of or, at least, to plead for mitigation of sentence passed were obvious. The Courts in Singapore made his prestige and that of UMNO soar high.

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CHAPTER Seven

We did not neglect our aim of achieving independence at the time when we were strengthening the party and building the Tunku as a leader. We met regularly at my house in Johor Bahru. When I said “we”, I meant the Malay Graduates’ Association, but the ones who attended the meetings regularly were Encik Suffian and myself. The two of us would prepare a paper which was discussed with the Tunku and other members of the Association. I was keen to follow the footsteps of Ghana which just had the status of self-government conferred on them and which was then on the eve of her independence. We concluded that the most important thing was to hold national elections and that if the pro-Merdeka party swept the elections, independence was a certainty. At this time General Sir Gerald Templer, the High Commissioner of Malaya, was also talking of holding elections but he was thinking of holding them at the village pump level, thereby introducing democracy at the grass-roots level. We disagreed for two reasons: first, we were convinced that this was a delaying tactic on the part of the British and second, we were convinced that elections at the village level would not be successful and today we are proven right because very few elected local councils are successful. 33

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However, we were not going to let the elections proposed by Templer remain uncontested by us because we were also aware that these elections provided a means of testing our strength and also our popularity with the people. The introduction of elections brought great change to the political scene. Dato Onn had, by this time, started his Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) and his timing was such that it was in readiness for the Kuala Lumpur municipal election. One of the persons whom Dato Onn disliked, and who disliked him in return, was Mr H.S. Lee (later Tun Sir Henry Lee). Their dislike of each other was so bitter and so personal that each was bound to oppose whatever the other did. Henry Lee, at that time, had control of the Chinese guilds in Selangor and, as such, he was in control of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). Henry approached the local UMNO leader, Dato Yahya, and after much discussion decided to form an alliance of UMNO–MCA to contest the election in the Kuala Lumpur municipa­lity. The alliance trounced the IMP at the elections. The next local council election was for the Johor Bahru Town Council, and this was held just after the one in Kuala Lumpur. I was the one responsible for UMNO’s preparation. Spurred by the success of the UMNO–MCA victory in Kuala Lumpur, it was decided by the local committee of UMNO and MCA to form a similar alliance to fight the election in Johor Bahru. I gave my agreement to this alliance from the sick bed to which I had been confined for I was suffering, at this time, from a severe infection of the heart valves. I was convales­cing, with strict instructions from my physician to take things easy for a few months and he ruled out my involvement in the election campaign. I ignored this advice and led the alliance to a 100 per cent victory. There was an interesting sideline to this election. On the last day on which campaigning was allowed, I made a broadcast, as leader

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Chapter Seven

35

of the alliance, asking the electorate to elect either all the candidates on the alliance ticket, or none at all. This naturally caused a lot of alarm and consternation among the alliance candidates who did not expect all of us to be elected and the most vociferous of those who opposed my line of action was a candidate who became a minister in the 1964 Alliance Government. This difference with the others reflected the attitude which we took with regard to the election. I saw the election as a means of measuring our strength and popularity with the voters, whereas some of my colleagues, including the minister mentioned above, were more interested in securing seats in the Council for themselves. Luckily for me and for our party, we won all the contested seats. The success of the alliance between the UMNO and the MCA in Kuala Lumpur and Johor Bahru was followed by other successes in other states where local council elections were held. The effect of this was two-fold. First, the alliance between UMNO and the MCA would be complete when the Central Executives of the two parties agreed at the national level to form the Alliance. Second, the British, now fully awakened to the strength of the Alliance, made specific plans to defeat the Alliance in future elections at higher levels. It would do well to remember that the formation of the Alliance at the national level took place after the success of the Alliance at the local council election and that no prior conditions were laid down by either UMNO or the MCA. The main objective of the Alliance was to press for the election to be held at the national level as a means to gain independence.

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CHAPTER eight

The growing strength of the Alliance both as shown in its success at the polls and by the increasing number of its supporters was not without notice from the colonial administrators, especially Sir Gerald Templer, a shrewd and able man. When Sir Gerald became High Commissioner, the Tunku and myself were made members of the Federal Legislative Council. The Tunku was also made a member of the Executive Council. During the period from 1948 to 1955, the Federal Legislative Council consisted of official members and nominated members. The nominated members were appointed by the High Commissioner to represent various “interests” in the country, but apart from European members who represented British commercial and industrial interests, the majority of members until Dato Onn left UMNO were either members of UMNO or the MCA. After the Tunku took over the leadership of the party, there were only a handful of UMNO members left; the others had followed Dato Onn. Looking back now on the old Federal Legislative Council, it can be generally said that its members were on the whole able men and if it had not been for the fact that the contentious theme for the period was that of independence, they would have served the country quite well. The President 36

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Chapter Eight

37

of the Council, Mr Donald MacGillivray, was an able, shrewd administrator, typical of the breed which the colonial office was sending out at that period to her troubled colonies. The Chief Secretary, Sir David Watherston, was a conscientious civil servant whose behaviour and attitude was more of a priest than a civil servant. Sir Michael Hogan, the Attorney General, was a brilliant Irishman who must have kissed the Blarney Stone much earlier than any ordinary Irishman because his eloquence was supreme and this, coupled with his wit and superb presentation of his case, made him admired and respected by all. Among the Asian members, Mr Yong Shook Lin was noted for his clear advocacy and the sing-song style of his oratory; Dato E.E.C. Thuraisingham for his verbosity about nothing; and Dato Onn for his superb eloquence both in English and Malay. As for us UMNO and MCA members of the Council, we were more interested in the political issues which were debated in the Council. One of the issues which I still remember clearly was the subject of censorship on Dato Onn. Dato Onn had made very inflammatory communal speeches attacking the Chinese. Mr Tan Siew Sin, who would become Minister of Finance, had tabled a motion which sought to censor Dato Onn. Siew Sin was under great pressure from the Chinese members of the Council, and also from various political parties who had cast aside their political differences, to withdraw his motion on the grounds that it would precipitate a racial clash. I remember attending the meeting of members of UMNO and MCA and urging Siew Sin to proceed with his motion. I argued that if Dato Onn was allowed to carry on with his inflammatory communal speeches in public without a censor motion on him in the House, he would be much encouraged to go on with his communal line and in the end a racial clash was bound to occur whether we liked it or not. In the end, Siew Sin regained his courage and the motion was allowed to proceed.

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Drifting into Politics

I recall making a scathing attack on Dato Onn, dissecting him into four parts, all of which were anything but complimentary to him. Years later when I was a Minister, a member of the opposition quoted this speech of mine when he was accused of being an extremist. One of Sir Gerald Templer’s abilities was his uncanny knack of keeping his hand on the public pulse. Because of the growing strength of the Alliance, he decided to have Alliance members represented on his Executive Council. The Executive Council consisted of a number of nominated members of the Federal Legislative Council. Most of the executive members were assigned responsibilities for certain departments of Government. These members were designated members for the department for which they were responsible. Thus there were members for Transport, Lands and Mines, and the like. Sir Gerald approached the Tunku, who was already an unofficial member of the Executive Council, to serve as one of the members. The Tunku was too shrewd a man to fall into that trap: he knew that if he accepted, he would be tied down to the work of administering departments in his portfolio, leaving him little time for party work. At the same time he liked Sir Gerald too much to snub him. Thus one day, he came to see me in Johor Bahru and said that Templer wanted to see me. He gave me a letter which I was not to read until after I entered the gates leading to King’s House where Sir Gerald resided. Such was my loyalty and love for the Tunku that I never thought of protesting this unusual procedure. As soon as I entered the grounds of King’s House, I read the note that the Tunku gave me — I still have this note, because I consider it an historical document. He said in the letter that when I saw Sir Gerald, I would be offered a post in the administration. He did not want me to refuse, but to give a reply to the effect that I had to consult the party Central Executive Committee. I was thus placed in a difficult dilemma, without

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Chapter Eight

39

much time to plan things out. When I was ushered into Sir Gerald’s study, I saw that Tun Sir Henry Lee was already there. Henry is not noted for his reticence and he blurted out straightaway that Sir Gerald had offered him the post of Member of Transport and that he would accept it only if Sir Gerald would agree to his drawing a nominal salary of £1 per month. Unfortunately, he said, Sir Gerald would not hear of this and he was therefore compelled to accept the offer in the interest of the MCA and the country. He then said that Sir Gerald would be offering me the post of Member for Lands and Mines and he suggested that I should accept since he had already accepted. It was obvious to me then that to delay a decision on the pretext of consulting the party executive committee would not work. This was borne out when Sir Gerald made his offer. He told me he wanted the Alliance to be represented on his Executive Council. Henry had accepted but the Tunku had told Sir Gerald that he would like to be free to do party work, but that he would send me instead. Razak, according to Sir Gerald, was too young and in any case, he was State Secretary of Pahang and could not be spared by the Pahang Government. Faced by such a momentous decision, I knew that I could not refuse without letting Henry and the MCA down and, more importantly, the Tunku down. Therefore I told Sir Gerald that I would accept on one condition which was that if I should disagree on fundamental issues with him or with any majority decision of the Executive Council, he must promise to accept my resignation should I tender. He agreed but added that he would be a fool to allow such a situation to arise. The person who was very furious with my decision was my father when I personally went to tell him about it. He said that in the first place, it was most discourteous of me to inform him after I had made my decision and secondly, that I had abandoned a profession which he took so much trouble and

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sacrifice to equip me with. There was little I could say except to state that any sacrifice which would advance the cause of independence for our country was never too great for me to offer. When the Tunku heard of my father’s anger, he came to the house and in his usual way managed to pacify my father and even made him agree to give his blessing.

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CHAPTER nine

My term as a member in the Federal Legislative Council was never dull. After only a couple of months as member of Lands and Mines and Communications, Road Transport was added to my “Ministry”. A “Cabinet” committee on this had been set up with Dato E.E.C. Thuraisingham, Mr Yong Shook Lin, Tun Sir Henry Lee, and Tunku Abdul Rahman as members. Dato Nik Kamil wisely never asked this committee to meet and its first meeting was therefore held when I became responsible for Road Transport and by virtue of this, Chairman of the Committee. I had said earlier that one of the ways by which the Tunku tried to build himself and the party up was to champion any cause which at that moment was arousing public interest. Malay participation in road transport was such a cause. Briefly, there were two ways by which Malays could participate in the road transport business: first by issuing new licences in addition to the existing ones, and second by redistributing existing licences by taking some of them away from the Chinese and giving them to the Malays. The difficulty with the first is that because of the very nature of the structure of road transport, there had to be new routes available before new licences could be issued. This was particularly the case with buses, but not so much with taxis. Dato Onn and his crowd in the Federal Legislative Council 41

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decided to take political advantage of this at the expense of the Alliance. All the Tunku wanted was for the Malays to be given extra taxi licences and if he succeeded in this, it would enhance his prestige and that of the party’s. Dato Onn kept on plugging the line that the Chinese must show their good faith to the Malays by giving up some of the licences then owned by the Chinese bus companies. The atmosphere was anything but conducive to an orderly meeting. To make matters worse, the Secretary of the Committee was an inexperienced expatriate officer. Instead of preparing and submitting the minutes of each meeting as a summary of what took place, he insisted on preparing one in which he reported what each member was supposed to have said. It was inevitable that at the subsequent meeting, it would be impossible to proceed beyond the stage of confirming the minutes of the previous meeting, because each member denied that he had ever said what was attributed to him in the minutes. In the end, by exercising patience and hard work, I managed to get the Committee to table a report which, I am glad to say, formed the basis of present day allocation of licences to the Malays. I was extremely busy during the whole period as a member of General Templer’s Executive Council because General Templer added natural resources to my portfolio. I had to see General Templer every day. He was a hard taskmaster but a wonderful man to work for. My task was to improve land administration, investigate the steps to forming a land development authority, and resettle the landowners which had become a worry because of state jealousies. In the evening, after a hard day’s work at the office, I would go to the Miner’s Club to sit on the Alliance Committee, which was preparing a manifesto for the forthcoming first election for the Federal Legislature. The

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Chapter Nine

43

manifesto, on completion, was a comprehensive one, embodying in detail the policy of the Alliance and it was called, “The Road to Independence”. In it was found the Alliance’s unique proposal to set up an independent commission to draw up the Constitution of an Independent Malaya. The members of the Commission were to be chosen from Commonwealth countries. The Alliance had great faith in the Commonwealth and also felt that the experience of Commonwealth countries with regard to law, the civil service, and the judiciary were almost identical. The Alliance also felt that the complexities of a multiracial society, such as that in Malaya, could only be solved by an independent commission which would be unbiased. The Federal Legislative Council, due to incessant demands from members of the Alliance in the Council and also by the Alliance party members outside, passed a resolution appointing a Committee of the Council to look into the question of first holding elections to its body. In the Federal Legislative Committee, the members of the Alliance were outnumbered by members belonging to Dato Onn’s party and also by ex officio members who were expatriates. The chairman of the Committee was Sir Michael Hogan who was also the Attorney General. It speaks much for Sir Michael’s talent, patience, and tact that the Committee was able to sit down regularly to work out the principles and details of the elections. The first principle to be decided on was whether it was desirable to have voting which would ensure proportional representation or votes counted on a simple majority. The former would encourage the growth of a number of political parties while the latter would encourage the growth of a two-party system. It was agreed that since we had been brought up on the tradition of the British Parliamentary system, it would be better to adopt a simple majority vote.

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Drifting into Politics

The second principle to be decided on was whether the principle of weightage should be applied in such a way that the sparsely inhabited areas would be divided into constituencies in which the number of votes returning an elected member would be much less than that in an urban constituency. Although this problem affected the Chinese adversely politically, it spoke volumes for them that they accepted it after it had been explained to them that the principle had already been accepted in many democratic countries. There were other principles and details which were argued but since they affected the nature and mechanics of elections, agreement was reached on them. The biggest problem of all was, of course, whether in this first election, the number of elected members should form a majority or a minority in the Council. The Alliance was adamant that the elected members should form a majority otherwise it would be meaningless because then no resolution advocating independence would be passed in the Council. Dato Onn, backed by the ex officio members, was equally adamant that the elected members should not be a majority. After weeks of deadlock, the British Government, through the High Commissioner, suggested that the strength of the nominated members and elected members should be equal but six extra seats would be nominated at his discretion. The Alliance could not agree to this compromise because it was clear that even if it won all the contested seats, it could not form a government without the support of six members who were nominated at the discretion of the High Commissioner.­ When the report with the compromise incorporated was accepted by the Committee, the Alliance threatened a boycott of the government. This was a serious matter for the British. Because besides having two members on the Federal Executive

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Chapter Nine

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Council, the Alliance controlled practically all the elected seats on the local councils. When the boycott finally took place, I resigned from the Government and my family and I went back to Johor Bahru. The boycott was highly successful and the Deputy High Commissioner, Sir Donald MacGillivray, was really worried. He sent Sir Michael Hogan to Johor Bahru to contact the Tunku and me. We met at the British Adviser’s residence and were told by Sir Michael that Sir Donald wanted us to meet him on board the British warship, the Alert, which was anchored at Seletar, the British naval base in Singapore. Also at the meeting was Tun Sir Henry Lee who had come down from Kuala Lumpur with Sir Michael. Our first reaction was that the British were trying to exile us and so we had to make preparations before coming to the meeting of how the struggle for independence was to carry on should we be exiled by the British. Both the timing and the manner of our departure from Johor Bahru to the Alert were dramatic. We left the British Adviser’s house at dusk in the Adviser’s car which was flying the Union Jack. It naturally aroused a lot of misapprehension among our supporters who were in the know. When we reached the Alert, Sir Donald was there waiting for us in the Captain’s cabin. He told us that he was going on a cruise for a fortnight up the east coast of Malaya and that he wanted to see us before he left. He said he was not at all happy with the turn of events and that the Alliance, by its boycott of the Government, was playing into the hands of the communists who were already taking political advantage of it. He assured us that the six nominated seats reserved at the discretion of the High Commissioner would not be used to frustrate any political party which secured majority seats at the elections. We had to think fast and although the three of us had no time to meet to

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discuss matters, we knew that if we did not offer some sort of compromise, we might be taken away and exiled. If that were to happen, we knew the movement for independence would pass from the hands of the moderates to the hands of the extremists who, because of the methods which they might employ, would never achieve their goals. I therefore suggested that we were willing to show that we were responsible leaders by proposing that in exercising his discretion in nominating the six, the High Commissioner should do so only after consulting with the leader of the majority party. Sir Donald at first rejected this compromise because he said that this would fetter the discretion reserved for the High Commissioner. We said that that was as far as we were prepared to concede and that we were prepared for the worst. Finally, seeing that we would not be moved from our stand, he agreed to think over our proposal during his voyage and would let us know his reply when he returned. It later turned out that the object of his voyage was to gauge the feelings of the East Coast Malays and if possible, win them over to his side. When he found that the Malay support for UMNO was absolute and that he had failed to persuade them in spite of everything, he agreed to our compromise on his return to Kuala Lumpur.

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CHAPTER ten

The stage was now set for the first election to the Federal Legislative Council. At stake were fifty-two seats. The Alliance had to win the majority of these seats if it were to form the government. Although the Labour Party was contesting the election, it was obvious that the fight was between the Alliance and Dato Onn’s new Party, The Party Negara. The government was, of course, backing Dato Onn and his party and it was known that Sir Donald MacGillivray was in continuous contact with Dato Onn by telephone from the King’s House. As far as the Alliance was concerned, the main question was who was to challenge Dato Onn, who was standing in a Johor constituency. The Tunku characteristically put up a trial balloon by spreading the rumour that Dato Sardon, the UMNO Youth Leader, was willing to sacrifice himself by taking on Dato Onn! When Sardon heard of it, he promptly denied the rumour because the fear of Onn was terrible and the shadow of Onn was dark. There remained only my brother Suleiman and I — members of my family were the only ones who could possibly take on Dato Onn — and so finally Suleiman offered to take up the challenge. As long as I live, I shall never forget that election. It was the most hectic moment of my life and I am sure it was the 47

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same for the other Alliance leaders. Our headquarters in Johor Bahru worked around the clock and we concentrated especially on Dato Onn. When the results came out, not only did we win fifty-one out of fifty-two seats but Suleiman also defeated Dato Onn by a sizeable majority. When the election was over, the first Alliance-dominated Executive Council was formed. The Tunku was made Chief Minister and Minister of Home Affairs; Razak, Minister of Education; I became Minister of Natural Resources; Suleiman, Minister of Local Government; Henry Lee, Minister of Transport; Aziz Ishak, Minister of Agriculture and Telecommunications; Sardon, Minister of Works and V.T. Sambanthan, Minister of Labour. Our first task was to prepare for a trip to London to negotiate for independence. Although, in view of our overwhelming victory at the polls, one would not have expected hesitancy on the part of any of the Alliance leaders as to the timing of the talks with the British government, it was not so. It was argued that it would be better to postpone the talks until the end of our mandate so that public opinion could be worked up before the next elections, thus ensuring another lease of office for the Alliance. Of course, this view never had the chance of being tested at all because the overwhelming majority in the Alliance would not brook any delay. In preparing for the London trip, one of the obstacles to be overcome was the attitude of the Rulers. They were naturally apprehensive of their future in an independent Malaya. Although the Alliance made it clear in its election manifesto that the Rulers had an important role to play in an independent Malaya (especially by virtue of the fact that in a multi­racial country such as Malaya, they would form the focal point of loyalty), some of them had to be convinced of the necessity of taking early action in

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Chapter Ten

49

certain areas in order to ensure that independence could be won smoothly. One of these areas was the abolition of the post of British Advisers to the Rulers. The late Sultan Ibrahim of Johor was adamant that he should retain his Adviser but he was thwarted by an event that I shall describe later. We finally succeeded in persuading the Rulers to send men to represent them at the talks in London. Most of the men chosen were sympathetic to the Alliance cause, with the exception of the Mentri Besar of Perak, Dato Panglima Bukit Gantang. However, in the end, to our surprise even he supported our cause. We travelled to London in two stages: the first by boat and the second by plane. The whole idea was Tunku’s. He had conceived the idea (which worked very well) of throwing the members of the delegation together to mix and work during the whole period of the sea voyage to give them the opportu­nity of ironing out their differences so that by the end of the voyage they would emerge as one team to face the British government. On board the ship we met every morning with the Tunku as chairman and by the time we arrived in Karachi, all of us, including Dato Panglima Bukit Gantang, were agreed on the lines of discussion with the British government.

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CHAPTER eleven

For some of us in the delegation, this was our first trip to London. We arrived in October and were housed in St. James’ Court as guests of Her Majesty’s Government. It always amuses me even now as I reminisce, that some people thought we were housed in St. James’s Palace instead of a hotel where the British government usually place their overseas guests. This was also my first trip to London. I had heard so much of London from Suleiman who spent no less than six years there. We lost no time in sampling London: its night life, its shopping centres and, above all, its girls. I always tell my friends that of all my trips abroad — I have travelled no less than six times around the world — ­ I liked this first trip to London the best. Our delegation was composed of men who got on well together both at official meetings and at social functions. As I said some of us were in London for the first time and were enjoying the big city as children would. The rest, who had been students there, like the Tunku and Razak, were kind enough to guide us throughout our stay. From the time that we landed at London airport, it was obvious that our mission was going to be a success because a certain high official in the Colonial office told us that what we 50

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Chapter Eleven

51

came for would be handed over to us on a gold platter. The Colonial secretary then was Mr Lennox Boyd (now Lord Boyd) and he and the Tunku hit it off well together. The meeting was conducted in a typical fashion: there was a main meeting called the plenary meeting and in addition, there were the meetings of the various committees. I remember that in addition to attending the plenary meeting (which all members of the delegation attended), I attended meetings of the Finance Committee and the Civil Service Committee. The chairman of the Finance Committee was Sir Hilton Poynton and he was a hard nut to crack. At the Civil Service Committee, we succeeded in drafting a scheme of compensation for the expatriate civil servants in Malaya; the ease with which the Malayan Civil Service was transferred from the hands of the expatriates is a tribute to the soundness of the scheme. There were, of course, controversial political subjects discussed at the conference in addition to the “routine” matters which I have just illustrated. First, there was the question of the British Advisers to the Sultans. The British wanted us to keep the British Advisers until independence was declared. We were adamant that they should leave immediately because we were convinced that they would, if allowed to stay on, set the Rulers against the politicians. It was important that the representatives of the Rulers on our delegation gave us their support if we were to have our way on this issue. All the Ruler’s representatives, except the one from Johor, were given a free hand on this issue. In the case of Johor, the representative was given specific instructions to press for the retention of the advisers. The representative of the Sultan was my father-in-law, the late Dato Seth. He was a Johor civil servant, a successful one and at the time when he was representing the Sultan, he was the deputy State Secretary of Johor. It was well known that the late

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Sultan Ibrahim was an autocratic ruler who would dismiss any civil servant he disliked, no matter whether he had the power to do so or not. Lennox Boyd knew of the instructions which the Sultan had given to my father-in-law and he was taken aback when Dato Seth said that he was going against his Sultan’s orders and would go along with the Alliance in asking for the immediate removal of the advisers. The Tunku was so pleased and grateful to Dato Seth for his courage and patriotism that when he returned to Malaya and Tunku became Chief Minister, he made my father-in-law chairman of the Railway Services Commission. The second controversial political question discussed was the target date for independence. The British government was reluctant to fix any target date and in doing so tied the hands of the independence commission on the constitution which the conference had tenaciously agreed to set up. The members of UMNO in the delegation especially the Tunku, Razak, and myself were committed to a target date because at the UMNO General Assembly in Malacca held before the delegation departed for London, a resolution had been passed that Merdeka must be achieved by 31 August 1957. After a lengthy discussion, the conference finally agreed to add the words “if possible” after the words “August 31, 1957”. We had a successful mission after only a short discussion in London.

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CHAPTER twelve

After the return of the Merdeka mission from London, Malaya was launched into a short period of self-government from 1955 to 1957. Tunku Abdul Rahman became Chief Minister, Razak retained the Ministry of Education and I became Minister of Commerce and Industry.1 The main events which dominated this short period of selfgovernment were the Tunku’s meeting with Chin Peng and the work of the independent commission on the constitution. Tunku was anxious for the state of emergency which had plagued Malaya for a decade to be over when independence Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

was declared on 31 August 1957. In order to find out whether this was possible, he argued that it was essential for him to meet Chin Peng, the leader of the Communist Party of Malaya, and have a frank dialogue with him. As was usual when the Tunku decided on taking an unorthodox step to settle a political problem, he met with opposition. In this case, he was opposed by the British and also by many leaders of the Alliance, including myself. We were worried that in his anxiety to end the state of emergency, he might compromise himself to the extent that he might endanger the security of the country when independence was achieved. He was steadfast in his desire to talk with them and could not be dissuaded, so the next best thing was to ensure that when 53

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the meeting took place, the Tunku was well briefed and his security not endangered. Tunku himself was adamant that a safe passage be guaranteed for Chin Peng and his aides. It says much for the trust that Chin Peng had in the Tunku that he accepted the invitation to meet the Tunku knowing full well that he was throwing himself at the mercy of the Tunku and the British. As is well known by now, Chin Peng rejected Tunku’s conditions on the offer of amnesty. For the Tunku, the meeting created a lasting impression. From that day onward, he was convinced that no peace was possible with the communists, and to quote his words, “it is either the communists or me”. On the political front, the Alliance was busy trying to iron out the differences on communal issues. Hitherto the Alliance had been busy mobilizing the people on an emotional plane to support the cause of independence. This was a comparatively easy task, because all the Alliance had to do was to tap the vast source of nationalism which was sweeping the coasts of Southeast Asia and indeed the rest of the colonized world. Now Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

that the British had accepted the principle of independence for a multiracial Malaya, the communal issue had to be faced and resolved. The task was indeed formidable. Until now, the MCA leadership of Tan Cheng Lock and Henry Lee had to deal with UMNO only on the abstract issue of independence. There was no disagreement on this. After the return of the mission from London, the MCA had been preparing itself for hard negotiations on behalf of the Chinese. To this end, they had chosen a very strong team of young Chinese intellectuals. They included such names as Tan Siew Sin, who would become Minister of Finance; Mr Yong Pung How, a brilliant

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young lawyer; Mr Ng Ek Teong, also a lawyer; Dr Lim Chong Eu, founder of the United Democratic Party; and Ong Yoke Lin, now Malayan Ambassador to the United States of America. Of these, only Ong Yoke Lin belonged to the old guard and understood the trust and confidence which had built up in the Alliance. The others, while they sensed that there was trust and confidence, had not themselves experienced it and their approach at the meetings was at first critical. It was only after weeks of negotiations that it became possible to change the atmosphere and the attitude of the parties at the conference. In fact after a few weeks of dialogue, UMNO, the MCA and the Malaysian Indian Congress ceased to see the communal problems from the angles which each party had tried to put across to the others. They now looked at these problems as a challenge which the Alliance as a unity should find the solutions to. As I saw this spirit emerge and expand during the rest of the conference, I was convinced that whatever might happen in the future, this spirit of the Alliance would triumph over all obstacles. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

As a result of this new consciousness, the solutions to many communal problems became possible. The problems which were of concern to the Malayan races were citizenship, the national language, and the special position of the Malays.

Citizenship Under colonial rule, there was a cumulative increase in the population of immigrant races, especially those of Chinese origin and to a lesser extent the Indians, the latter brought in mainly to work in the rubber estates owned by the British. No attempt was made to make these immigrants loyal citizens of Malaya. The British were content to see that as long as they

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obeyed the laws of the country, they could come and leave as they please. As a result of this policy, when more and more of them settled in Malaya, the result was an increasing number of aliens in the country who, on the whole, were richer and more vigorous than the Malays. When the Malays seized political power after the Second World War, their main defence against their more virile and richer neighbours was to deny them the right of citizenship. It was realized by the leaders of the Alliance that this problem of granting citizenship to the “aliens” had to be tied up to the language issue and the special position of the Malays.

The Language Issue As a result of colonial rule, the only language that could guarantee a livelihood for those entering the government service was English. Otherwise, the various races were left to themselves with regard to education. There was a feeble

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attempt to give the Malays an education in their own language but as this ceased at the primary level and was implemented in a half-hearted manner, it gave no benefit to the Malays. The Chinese were left to themselves and their own schools which were financed through levies that they imposed on themselves, on their rubber production, and their businesses. Their education was oriented towards China. As a result, only the English-educated in the multiracial population of Malaya enjoyed a common language. The leaders of the Alliance concluded that in an independent Malaya, there should be one language to unify the various races into one nation. The obvious choice was Malay. It was imperative that if the

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Chinese — the real political problem since the other races were not as dominant — were to be persuaded into accepting Malay as the national language, they should be granted citizenship as a quid pro quo. This was the real basis of the agreement between the three partners, particularly between the Malay and the Chinese.

The Special Position of the Malays This proved a less intractable problem because the leaders of the Alliance realized the practical necessity of giving the Malays a handicap if they were to compete on equal terms with the other races. The only point of controversy was the duration of the “special position” — should there be a time limit or should it be permanent? I made a suggestion which was accepted, that the question be left to the Malays themselves, because I felt that as more and more Malays became educated and gained self-confidence, they themselves would do away with this “special position” because in itself, this “special position”

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is a slur on the ability of the Malays and only to be tolerated because it is necessary as a temporary measure to ensure their survival in the modern competitive world, a world to which only those in the urban areas had been exposed. When the Alliance leaders agreed to these methods of solving the racial problems, it only remained to incorporate them in a memorandum (which was done) and submitted to the independent commission. Because the Alliance memoranda and representations were practical and clearly showed the way to interracial harmony in an independent Malaya, practically all these recommendations were incorporated into the Constitution of Malaya.

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Note 1. The Cabinet was as follows:

Tunku Abdul Rahman

Chief Minister and Defence



Dr Ismail

Commerce and Industry



Henry H.S. Lee

Finance



Abdul Razak

Education



V.T. Sambanthan

Posts and Telecoms Interior



Leong Yew Koh

Welfare



Abdul Aziz Ishak

Agriculture



Ong Yoke Lin

Health



Sardon Jubir

Transport

Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

Suleiman

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CHAPTER thirteen

Shortly before Merdeka was declared, the Tunku spoke to me about going to Washington, D.C., as our country’s first ambassador to the United States of America and at the same time, accredit myself to the United Nations as Malaya’s first permanent representative. He said the choice was between Razak and me and honestly, he said, he could not spare Razak as he wanted him in Malaya to assist him. When I accepted the offer, relatives and friends speculated that I had been banished. This thought never occurred to me. It satisfied me to be offered a position which would enable our newly independent country to be known abroad. As is usual with me, when I took on the assignment I threw my heart and soul into the job. It was a tough assignment and not made any easier by the lack of prior government preparation. In fact, I had to set up the two missions from scratch. The Tunku sent me about two weeks before independence to the United States to look for suitable buildings in Washington and New York for our mission. In doing so, I felt we must not seem bigger than we actually were. Our Embassy had to conform to our status noticeable without ostentation. I managed to buy three buildings in Washington for the Embassy and secured a lease for our office in New York. It was fortunate that I went as a Minister of the Cabinet, with authority to negotiate on the spot, otherwise 59

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the whole negotiation would not have been completed as quickly as it had been. (There was a sidelight to this episode: when I arrived back in Kuala Lumpur, I was told at the airport that the Cabinet had sanctioned the purchase of two, instead of three, buildings in Washington. As Cabinet was sitting in the afternoon of the day of my arrival, I attended the sitting and managed to persuade the Cabinet to sanction the purchase of the third building.) Our journey to Washington was partly nerve-racking, partly humorous, but never dull. Our party consisted of four women, nine children and thirty-one pieces of luggage, and only two men: Ismail bin Mohamed Ali (now a Tan Sri and the Governor of Bank Negara) and myself. Someone with good intentions no doubt ordered special food to be served to us throughout the flight to the United States. Therefore we had curry all the way from Kuala Lumpur to the United States. Even in Honolulu, where we were told at the hotel that special food was to be served to us, it turned out to be curry. Our Embassy in Washington and the New York Mission were understaffed and the few officers who were assigned to them were well qualified, but new to their jobs. We had no code and had to invent one using the national language. Communication with the foreign office at home was slow and so, many a time, we had to resort to the phrase, “if we don’t hear from you after such and such a time, we will assume that you agree with our suggested lines of action”. In this way, our Embassy and Mission made quite a lot of decisions on the spot regarding foreign affairs. Our admission to the United Nations was spectacular. We were all dressed in the national costume — or at least those of us who had them. In addition, I had a kris tucked into my waist. This was the first time that a weapon of any kind

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had been brought into the General Assembly of the United Nations. 1 In my inaugural speech, I mentioned that the communists who were fighting our government and subverting the country were alien Chinese and as it was the policy of the Chinese communist government to export revolution, she should not be admitted into the United Nations. This at once aroused the anger of Krishna Menon, the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, who, in his speech, attacked us and said that it was regret­table that a new member who had just been admitted should choose, through the maiden speech of her representative, to exclude others from joining. I replied that being a new member did not mean that we should keep our mouth shut when we had something to say with regard to our country’s foreign affairs policy. We also got into trouble with Indonesia on West Irian. When the issue of whether the question should be included in the agenda of the 12th Session of the General Assembly came up before the Plenary Session of the Assembly and we had to cast our voice vote, I replied “abstain”. At once Ali Sastrowidjojo, the Indonesian permanent representative, came over to see me and demanded an explanation of our behaviour especially after he was assured by one of our senior officials that Malaya would vote in favour of Indonesia. However, we made up for it later on at the Political Committee. My speech to the Political Committee of the United Nations on 22 November 1957 was so impassioned, so emotionally in favour of Indonesia that the Indonesian delegates who heard it cried with emotion. Although I spent one-and-a-half years in the United States, I have never worked so hard in my life as I did during those years and it took a lot out of me and I am sure my premature retirement from politics owed a lot to this period. I worked no less than eighteen to twenty hours a day and commuted

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three to four days a week from New York to Washington and back again. I believe that I did useful work for my country and I am sure the experience I gained during this period stood me in good stead when, years later, I had to appear before the Security Council to present my country’s case against Indonesia during confrontation.

Note 1. In September 1964, Ismail argued Malaysia’s case against Indonesian aggression before the Security Council of the United Nations by having captured weapons smuggled in and exhibited before its

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members.

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CHAPTER fourteen

I was in the United States from August 1957 till December 1958. I returned to Malaya via Italy and arrived in Kuala Lumpur in January 1959. I had towards the end of 1958 written to Tunku of my decision to return and contest the Parliamentary Election of 1959. He agreed to my request. Although I returned to Malaya after only an absence of oneand-a-half years, I saw progress which could not have taken place if Malaya was still a colony. I was also quite pleased to note that although I had been away, my political stock in the party and the country was high. The Tunku had decided on my return to go on leave, to work for the party to ensure that we won the forthcoming elections with a big majority. He assigned me to the Ministry of External Affairs where I decided that our foreign policy should pursue an independent line, by which I meant that our stand on international problems should not be influenced by the policies of other countries, big or small. I learned when I was at the United Nations — where in addition to being a member of the Commonwealth group, we belonged also to the AfroAsian group — that the surest way to get into trouble was not to have a definite policy of our own on foreign issues because then we would be at the mercy of others. Although our policy of moderation in the United Nations did not get the approval 63

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of many members of the Afro-Asian group, we were respected because our policy was definite, logical, and consistent. It was while I was Minister of External Affairs that I went to Jogjakarta to attend the Colombo Plan meeting. I met President Sukarno for the first (and only) time and heard him speak. What I saw of Indonesia then depressed me especially after I had discussions with Dr Subandrio on the Association of South Asia (ASA). He was interested only in bilateral economic arrangements in so far as his interest in economics (which was not very far) was concerned. He told me he did not care very much about the economy of Indonesia so long as the revolution remained unfinished. He tried to expound on what he meant by this but I must confess that at the end of the long discourse, I was no wiser at the end than at the beginning. The foreign issue that occupied my attention as Minister of External Affairs was to see that our relations with Indonesia remained on the best of terms. This was not easy because at this time, a revolution in Indonesia led by S. Perwanegara was in progress. Because there was a sizeable number of Indonesians in Malaya owing to a free flow of people between the two countries, there was constant pressure from Indonesia through her ambassador, Dr Razif, for Malaya’s help in suppressing this rebellion. I was adamant that we stuck to our policy of strict neutrality because any intervention on our part could have caused a disturbance to our internal security, as a large number of Indonesians were residents in our country. If we were to support Indonesia, we would be in a serious position internally especially since we were already faced with communist subversion and the threat of militant communism on our border with Thailand which had already caused us to commit a large share of our national budget. Any further strain on our

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economy would have affected our prosperity. If the economy were to sag — especially in an election year — we would find ourselves in difficulties when the electorate cast their votes. During this period, we had in Indonesia an ambassador who was and still is a politician. He was a restless type who would have liked to see certain things done which an ordinary ambassador would prefer to leave alone. Encik Senu Abdul Rahman, our ambassador and later Minister of Information and Broadcasting, was on intimate terms with President Sukarno because they shared many things in common. He was anxious that we should intervene in West Irian. My experience at the United Nations strongly impressed on me the inflammable nature of the West Irian issue. I felt that any action we pursued should be done through the United Nations and for us to adopt a unilateral stand would, in the long run, incur the enmity of Indonesia. It was therefore a common practice for me to throw the letters which I received from our ambassador in Indonesia into the wastepaper basket because although I know Encik Senu well and count him as one of my close friends, I could not agree with him on the West Irian issue. Later when the Tunku took over the External Affairs Ministry, he was bold enough to take the initiative on West Irian and the result was the foundation of our strained relationship with Indonesia.

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CHAPTER fifteen

The election of 1959 was a test of whether the Alliance would survive as a coalition party of the three races in the country — the Malays, Chinese and Indians. The MCA was, at that time, led by Dr Lim Chong Eu, a doctor from Penang, who had shown up to that time, a degree of brilliance in politics. Unfortunately, during his stewardship of the MCA, he tried to get away from the foundations which had hitherto held the Alliance together: citizenship for the Chinese in return for their acceptance of Malay as the national language. On the eve of the elections, he tried to demand more seats for the MCA Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

rather than agree to the accepted method of allocation of seats used by the Alliance in previous elections. I tried my best to effectuate a compromise, but failed. As is often the case in times of crisis, the Tunku was firm and refused to yield: he said that he would not give in to threats and that he would stick by the old formula even if only a handful of MCA members remained in the party. The Alliance fought the elections without the support of Dr Lim and his followers and won by a handsome majority. When the Alliance formed the Government after the 1959 elections, I was again allotted the Ministry of External Affairs. I pursued the same policy as before the elections with instructions to the Ministry and our missions abroad to consolidate rather than enlarge our activities. 66

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After the election, Tunku went to England and later to Europe. In Europe, he had a long talk with Charles de Gaulle who was embarking on his own independent policy. De Gaulle convinced the Tunku that communist China should be recognized and admitted to the United Nations. Without consulting me and the Cabinet, Tunku, on his arrival in Kuala Lumpur, announced a sudden change in our policy towards communist China. At that time, we had refused to recognize either China or Russia. When the Cabinet met, I told them that I could not accept the new policy towards communist China and that I proposed to resign. I told them that a time would come when the communists would split, and that when it happened, we should then take advantage of it to change our policy towards communism as a whole and not before. But the Tunku was convinced that the day would never come. I was persuaded by my colleagues and by my late brother not to resign from Cabinet but to accept another ministry. In order to let me cool off (I am apparently noted for my hot temper), the Cabinet arranged for me to go to England to lead a commission to inquire into the position of our students in England and Ireland. I spent four months in England and at the end of the inquiry, produced a report which, I believe, is now used as a bible for the reconstruction of student organizations in the United Kingdom. When I returned, I was given the new portfolio of Internal Security. This was a controversial portfolio. It has all the aches and none of the pleasantness of the other ministries. I am sure that this posting, together with my stint as ambassador to the United States, had a lot to do with my failing health. Now that I have retired from the government, I look back on the days when I was first Minister of Internal Security and later Minister of Home Affairs, and I am amazed that I have

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managed to retire with the country appreciating my­service. I had expected that the last six years which I spent as Minister of the most difficult of portfolios would make me the most hated man in Malaya. As Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, I had wide powers and also had to deal on security matters with Singapore and Thailand. The most controversial law is the Internal Security Act. Great controversy went on and is still going on about this Act. Its opponents have argued that the Act is inconsistent with democracy, especially those provisions which give power to the police to exercise arbitrary arrest and detention without trial. The students objected to the suitability certificate clause in the Act and since my retirement, this clause has been suspended. I maintained then and I maintain now the view that the Internal Security Act is essential to the security of this country, especially when democracy is interpreted the way it is interpreted in this country. To those in opposition to the Government, democracy is interpreted to mean absolute freedom: even the freedom to subvert the nation. When cornered by the argument that democracy in the western sense means freedom in an ordered society and an ordered society is one in which the rule of law prevails, they seek refuge in the slogan that we should not imitate western democracy one hundred per cent. I am convinced that the Internal Security Act as practised in Malaysia is not contrary to the fundamentals of democracy. Abuse of the Act can be prevented by vigilant public opinion via elections, a free press, and, above all, by parliament. Although I believe the Internal Security Act is necessary for the security of the country, I did not relish having to administer it. To ensure that each case for detention was fully

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investigated and the pros and cons well argued before it reached me, I arranged for it to pass through the hands of several responsible senior officers of the police and the Home Ministry. When it finally came to me, I went through each case carefully and when in doubt, I always slept over it. It really took a lot out of me to approve cases for detention because some of the people detained were well­known to me. My only consolation is that on my retirement, nobody could accuse me of sending anybody to detention camp out of malice. Our dealings with the Thais concerning the security of our common border were a story of oriental politeness, patience, and understanding. When I took charge of negotiations, my policy was never to press the Thais for more than what they were willing to agree to. This policy paid off in the long run because I believe I was the first Malaysian Minister ever to get a Thai Minister to sign an agreement giving effective directions to our commanders on the ground to take definite action against the communist terrorists. My dealings with Singapore on security problems was an experience which I would not have liked to miss and also one which I would not like to go through again. The history of how we got involved in the internal security of Singapore goes back to the time when we achieved selfgovernment after the 1955 elections. Lim Yew Hock, then the Chief Minister of Singapore, was, at the time, negotiating with the British government for self-government for his people. The British government was only prepared to grant self-government on the condition that the internal security of Singapore be made the responsibility of a security council on which representatives of Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the Malayan government would sit. When the subject was discussed in the Federal Executive Council presided over by

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Sir Donald MacGillivray, I strongly opposed any suggestion that we should be involved in sharing responsibility in Singapore’s internal security because I argued that it was intolerable that an independent Malaya should meddle in the internal affairs of another country. When my objection was overruled, I asked that the objection be recorded in the minutes of the Council. It is ironic that when the first election under the new constitution of Singapore was held, the People’s Action Party (PAP) won by a large majority while the Alliance under Lim Yew Hock was completely routed. One of the first things that the PAP government did was to release the communists who were under detention. The Governor made a futile attempt to protest. I, chosen by Cabinet to represent the Federation of Malaya on the Security Council of Singapore, was instructed to raise our objection to the release. It was to no avail because Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew knew that having won the elections by a large majority, he now held the whip in his hand while the British and we were not prepared for a showdown. When I realized that it was unavoidable and inevitable that I should carry the burden of representing Malaya on the Singapore Security Council, I tried my best to totally involve myself in the work.

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CHAPTER sixteen

While I agreed to the notion that Malaysia should be formed by the Association of Malaysia, Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak, I had many reservations about the way it was formed and the conditions which Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak imposed for joining the new Federation. As Minister of Home Affairs, I objected to giving Sabah and Sarawak the control of immigration between themselves on one side and Malaya and Singapore on the other. I also opposed the Tunku’s generous offer of forty seats in the Federal Parliament. It is true that I did not oppose it so strongly to the extent of resigning from the Cabinet. I am not trying to disclaim my part in the collective responsibility of Cabinet, which approved the formation of Malaysia. I write it down to show how my convictions in politics have changed since the days when we fought for independence and since the early days after independence. During that period, I was uncompromising in what I believed in. I had no strong convictions about how and under what conditions Singapore should join Malaysia. I felt that the only way Singapore could stay in Malaysia after joining it depended not so much on what was written in the constitution, but rather on how the two political parties, the Alliance and the PAP approached this new state of affairs. I was under the impression that the PAP was to govern Singapore to make it the “New York 71

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of Southeast Asia”, while the Alliance was to govern Malaysia and that the two would work closely together for the benefit of Malaysia as a whole. However, it was obvious that once Singapore was in Malaysia, the status quo which I hoped would continue was not possible. Personal jealousies and ambitions were so strong and the political approaches to communal problems were so divergent that either of two things was bound to happen: first, if Singapore continued to be a part of Malaysia, communal clashes of such a magnitude as to destroy Malaysia as an identity was bound to occur; second, if Singapore was separated by mutual agreement, the chances of cooperation and eventual union of the two countries was a certainty. As it turned out, the latter alternative happened. In spite of what was believed, the separation of Singapore from Malaysia was by mutual agreement. I initiated the practice of playing a game of golf whenever I had to go to Singapore to attend a meeting of the Internal Security Council. Besides making Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Keng Swee good golfers, these games of golf proved productive in our deliberations on the security of Singapore. It also gave me a better chance to know Lee Kuan Yew. This is not the place to write a biography of such a complex personality as Lee Kuan Yew and I would just like to record an impression of the man. One of the reasons why I am so fond of golf is that it reveals much of a player’s character. Kuan Yew, when he plays golf is very deliberate, and calculates every move he wants to make. He takes his own time, so much so that he keeps not only those playing with him waiting longer than usual, but he also frustrates those who are following behind; a fact which he is unaware of, or if he is, he just ignores. Before he putts, he would not only take longer than the rest to read a green, but would pace out

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Chapter Sixteen

73

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the distance between t­he hole and the ball. He does not mind losing to a better player, but he would fight to the last. Often, because he is too calculating and deliberates too much, his ball either goes too short or goes past the hole and not infrequently he misses the easiest of shots. As we met more and more often, we began to respect and like­each other. I never made any attempt to match his brilliance in argument and my reply to any specific problem was either a simple yes or no and when he pressed me for my reasons, I told him that he had given the pros and cons so brilliantly that I needed only to agree or disagree with his opinion or decision. I had never believed that he was a communist and later on, on the verge of my retirement, he told me, in front of a group of people, that he studied me closely during the early stages of our friendship and only when he was convinced that I did not believe he was a communist did he decide to do business with me. I believe that if he could be less calculating, less suspicious of people, and more tolerant and more patient of human failings, he would do not only himself but Singapore and the whole of Southeast Asia much good.

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FURTHER NOTES — London, 30 March 1970

I have been in London since 10 March 1970 to undergo another tedious medical treatment. This time, however, my wife accompanied me and her company lessened an otherwise intolerable boredom. Like all my trips abroad, this one was planned well ahead. However, at the last moment, the purpose for the trip was suddenly changed due to circumstances beyond my control. Shortly after my return to Kuala Lumpur from my trip to London in the autumn of 1969, my health took a sudden turn for the worse. Before that, I was assured that there was no evidence of recurrence of the cancer of the neck and that I had at least two years to make a decision on whether to go for an operation on my heart. I was, therefore, able on my return from that autumn visit to London to announce publicly that my medical advisers had given me a clean bill of health. However, in September 1969, my heart gave signs of deterioration and after consultation with medical advisers both in Malaysia and London, arrangements were made for me to have a heart operation in the spring of 1970. If this operation were successful, I would be able to lead an active life of a man of my age, which was 54, on my birthday in 4 November 1969. 74

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Further Notes — London, 30 March 1970

75

Shortly after this incident of my heart, an unexpected and far-reaching occurrence, if it were made known publicly, occurred. For a long, long time, Tun Razak’s personal physician was Dr MacPherson, who had been and still is my personal physician and close friend for a much longer time. However, for political reasons, Tun Razak dropped Dr MacPherson and used the medical services of government doctors, who were all Asians. Lately Tun Razak’s appearance gradually began to change. He began to lose weight and his face has a sickly, unpleasant pallor and the total effect made him look really like an old man, although he was only 47 years old. It was, of course, a common joke among Tun Razak’s friends that he always liked to look like an old man and tried his best to achieve this in his college days but this time, he did look old. One day, at a party in my house, both he and Dr MacPherson were among the guests and they started talking to each other at one corner. It resulted in his asking Dr MacPherson to examine him medically, which the latter did the next day. The results were a shock to Dr MacPherson and myself. I had been taken into confidence by the expressed wish of Tun Razak himself. The results gave clear indications that he was suffering from an incurable blood disease, akin to cancer. The only people who knew of this were, besides Tun Razak, Dr MacPherson, myself, the haematologist at the hospital, and an expatriate research worker, who was at the University of Malaya. All these people were sworn to top secrecy. It was necessary to get confirmation of this and an eminent haematologist, Dr White, was secretly flown in from London and he confirmed the diagnosis. With Tun Razak a doomed man, my heart operation became vitally important not only to myself and my family, but to the whole nation. Between the Tunku, Tun Razak, and myself on

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76

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the one hand, and all the other politicians on the other, there was a wide gap in leadership. With the Tunku past his prime, Tun Razak a doomed man (although unknown to the nation), everything seemed to depend on me. Again fate played a trick. In early February, while I was dressing after a game of golf and a shower, I accidentally discovered a small lump on the right side of my neck, the same side where, in 1967, I discovered a lump which proved to be cancerous. There was no doubt in my mind and Dr MacPherson’s that this was a recurrence of the old disease and that no time must be lost, and that I should fly straightaway to London. However, I was in the midst of launching an important legislative programme on anti-corruption measures and I was determined that should there be any blame or what was worse, any demonstrations taking place, I must be in Malaysia to face it. I did not, therefore, leave for London, until almost a month later. During the nine weeks that I was in London, I discovered many things. The first is that my life is planned for me and many of the important events in my life happened without any conscious effort on my part. Such being the case, I must accept it for the remainder of my life and must try to adapt myself to, rather than resist, it. I was therefore not worried, when told by the specialists that I had a recurrence of cancer, nor disappointed when told by them that the operation in the heart had to be postponed, because of this. The treatment itself took nine weeks, when it was estimated that it would take only five. During this period, I had plenty of time to reflect on the future of my country

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FURTHER NOTES — 26 OCTOBER 1972

Two years have elapsed since I last wrote this biography. During this brief period, important events have taken place in Malaysia. Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Father of the Nation, had finally agreed to retire and Tun Razak became the new Prime Minister and I, his deputy; Parliament had been reconvened to pass the act amending the Constitution, which had the effect of prohibiting “sensitive” issues being used in politics; I had gone to the Holy Land Mecca with my wife; a Second Malaysian Development Plan had been passed by Parliament Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

and is now being implemented. Tun Razak’s health had not deteriorated and he enjoyed being Prime Minister. The Tunku’s departure from the scene was a drawn-out affair. He used all the politician’s skills to try to remain in power. He said, at first, that he wanted to retire. When there was no reaction to this statement, he made another that he would retire if the people wanted him to. Again there was no public response, but secretly people were cursing him for holding on to office when he had outlived his usefulness. Finally an opportunity came which allowed him to retire gracefully. He was offered the office of Secretary-General of the Islamic Conference. 77

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78

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The first act of Tun Razak as Prime Minister was to convene a meeting of divisional heads of UMNO. At this meeting, he announced his future policy and also named me as his deputy. This was the first time that my worth to the nation was admitted by a Prime Minister. The Tunku never acknowledged my worth publicly, although to a few chosen friends, he admitted that I was indispensable to the nation, and he quoted especially my handling of the 13 May affair and my defence of him in the period following this incident, when he was subjected to attacks of such obscenity by the Malays that one felt ashamed of them as a race. By calling a meeting of UMNO and not the Alliance to make his first public stand, Tun Razak was serving notice to the Alliance and the country as a whole, that from then onwards the Government of the country was in UMNO’s hands and the others were only supporters. It was a bold move and was unchallenged. It also marked the emergence of a new personality. Tun Razak had been Tunku’s deputy since independence. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

Tunku had used him recklessly, thereby enabling himself to live in style as a “happy Prime Minister”. However Tun Razak has always been an astute and patient politician. He knew his ascension to the Prime Ministership was guaranteed so long as Tunku was Prime Minister. His main task therefore during his period of office as Deputy Prime Minister was to consolidate his position among the Malays, leaving the Tunku to look after the non-Malays. His political image during the period when he was deputy was that of a Malay leader, viewed with suspicion by some non-Malays and regarded as anti-Chinese by others. However, since becoming Prime Minister, he has managed to change his image to that of a leader of a multiracial country.

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Further Notes — 26 October 1972

79

The Malays accepted this new image and regarded it as a political strategy rather than a true change of personality and views; the Chinese sighed with relief at this metamorphosis. This general acceptance of his new political image coupled with the general improvement of his health, which confounded his medical advisers, including Dr McPherson, has given him self-confidence and enabled him to shed those fears and worries that he lived with as Tunku’s deputy. Tun Razak is an able administrator and a shrewd politician. As an administrator, he manages to get things done with little fuss and argument. He has laid down the infrastructure of Malay participation in the economic life of Malaysia and is now busy prodding them to take advantage of the facilities being made available to them. As a politician, he is shrewd, cautious, and has the ability to handle people. His main disability is his lack of charisma. The three policies, which will determine the future of Malaysia, are:

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1. The implementation of Malay participation in the commercial and industrial fields; 2. The need to maintain and, if possible, to decrease the rate of unemployment; 3. The neutralization of Southeast Asia.

The Implementation of Malay Participation in Commerce and Industry This was discussed in the National Consultative Council in the days of the National Operations Council, 13 May 1969–70. Long debates on the policy of redressing economic imbalance

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between the Malays and other Bumiputera took place and many of the speeches were either inflammatory because they were racially based, or academic. I foresaw that if we were to get anywhere near to solving the problem, we must paint a clear picture of what was going to be done for the Malays without unduly frightening the non-Malays. I suggested that there must be a target to aim at and that this target must be reasonable and, what was more important, capable of being implemented. I said that we should aim at a target period of twenty years within which 30 per cent of Malays would participate in commerce and industry and that it should be implemented in the context of a growing economy. This proposal was unanimously accepted. At the time of writing, the implementation of this policy has been going on for almost two years. Although the policy is clear if it is seen in its entirety, in the course of implementation, various sectors of our society chose to see it only from a sectional angle. It is obvious that participation must mainly depend on new activities in commerce and industry. Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

This should not be difficult to achieve in a developing country like Malaysia, because new industries and new trading opportunities are constantly and continually being established and offered. Instead of trying to identify and promote new industries for Malays to participate in, government and government-sponsored agencies and officials used all sorts of strategies to inject Malays into the existing, established industries and businesses. The Chinese, on the other hand, instead of accepting the fact that new fields in commerce and industries must benefit the Malays, use all commercial and business tactics to prevent this from taking place.

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Further Notes — 26 October 1972

81

The implementation is further distrusted by the Malays when they refuse to see the picture of implementation as a whole, and rather choose to see details of implementation in isolation. The present Malay interest in capital accumulation when compared to that possessed by the non-Malays is one example. They argue that the present rate of government injection of capital into Malay commercial enterprises and trading institutions is so slow that in twenty years, Malay capital accumulation will not only fail to achieve the target but the gap will widen. They forget, or choose to forget, the fact that capital accumulation can be achieved not only by means of injection of fresh capital, but rather by the multiplication of existing capital through normal business activities. The Chinese, for example, achieved their present capital largely by business activities. Some of the big Chinese businesses achieved their success by this method. The Malays want the Government to restrict the business activities of the nonMalays while the Malays reach parity with them. If this philosophy is accepted then the whole concept of Malay Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

participation in a growing economy is replaced by a policy of Malay participation in a standstill economy. This is neither politically possible nor is it practical from the Government’s point of view. Injection of capital into the Malay sector can only be done if government taxes keep on increasing as the economy expands. Another problem that is a cause for concern is the manner by which the Malays want the Government to improve the quality of Malay manpower. The Government policy of doing this is, first of all, in the existing seats of learning where there are more qualified Malays seeking to enter than there

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are places for them, to reserve a quota for Malays. This is a reasonable way because all qualified Malays will be accommodated, and if there are surplus places, they should be given to non-Malays. It is true that by this policy, the time

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taken to bridge the gap will be slower than if the Government were to deny surplus places to non-Malays, but this is a practical and just way of doing things in a multiracial society like Malaysia.

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index

A

C

Abdullah, Prime Minister, xxvii

Cabinet committee, 41

Abdul Razak Hussein, xiii, xvi

Central Executive Committee,

Afro-Asian group, 63–64

26–28, 38

Alliance, 35, 36, 42, 45, 47, 54,

Chin Peng, 53–54

66, 71

citizenship

boycott of British

China demands on issue of,

Government, 44

24

leaders of, 56, 57

Malayan races, 55–56

leaders talk with British

Civil Service Committee, 51

Government, 48

Clause 15 of the Johor

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members in Executive

Constitution of 1894,

Council, 38

19n2

“Road to Independence, The”,

Colombo Plan meeting, 64

43

colonial rule, 21, 55, 56

Australia, Ismail Abdul Rahman

communism, 23, 24, 64, 67

in, 13–15

Constitutional Committee of 1947, 20n3

B

Constitution of an Independent

Boyd, Lennox, 51, 52

Malaya, 43

British colonialism, 24 British government, 44, 69

D

Alliance leaders talks with, 48

Dato Abdul Rahman, 9n18,

British Parliamentary system, 43

10n19

83

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84 Index Dato Nik Kamil, 41

G

Dato Panglima Bukit Gantang,

Goh Keng Swee, 72

31, 49 Dato Sardon, 30, 47

H

Dato Seth, 51, 52

Hasham, Joe, xii

Dato Yahya, 34

Hidup Melayu, policy of, 23

Dato Yusuf, 28

Hogan, Michael, 37, 43, 45

de Gaulle, Charles, 67

H.S. Lee, 34, 39, 45, 48, 54 Hussein Onn, 28, 29

E East Coast Malays, 46

I

election of 1959, 63, 66

Independence of Malaya Party

Embassy in Washington, 60 Executive Council

(IMP), 23, 34 Internal Security Act (ISA), xxvii,

General Templer, 42 members, 38

68 Ismail Abdul Rahman, xiii act of sex, 14–15

F

in Australia, 13–14

Federal Executive Council,

chronology of, xvii–xxii

44–45, 69

Dato Onn bin Ja’afar, 17–19

Federal Legislative Committee,

Federation of Malaya

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43

Agreement, 19

Federal Legislative Council, 27,

journey, 3–4

36, 38, 41, 43, 47

Malayan Union, 6, 17–18

Federated Malay States (FMS),

Malay families, 5

19n1

Malay nationalism, 7

Federation of Malaya Agreement

in Singapore, 11–12

of 1948, 18–19, 27

Suleiman, 17

Finance Committee and the

trip to London, 50

Civil Service Committee, 51

Tunku Abdul Rahman, 17 Ismail bin Mohamed Ali, 60

FMS. See Federated Malay States (FMS) Funston, John, xii

J “Johor Conspiracy”, 9n18

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Index 85 Johor Constitution, 20, 27

Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), 9n16, 34

K

United Malays National

Kuok, Robert, xi

Organisation (UMNO) and, 35, 37

L

Malaysian Indian Congress,

Labour Party, 47

55

language issue, 56–57

Malik Taufiq, xii

Lee Kuan Yew, xi, 70, 72

Maria Hertogh Riots, 32

Lim Chong Eu, 55, 66

MCA. See Malaysian Chinese

Lim Yew Hock, 69, 70

Association (MCA) Menon, Krishna, 61

M

Model State Constitution,

MacDonald, Malcolm, 32 MacGillivray, Donald, 37, 45, 47, 70

20n3 Mohamed Ghazali, 10n19 Mohamed Tawfik bin Tun Dr

MacMichael Agreement, 9n18,

Ismail, xi

19n2 Mahathir, xxvi, xxvii

legacy, xv–xvi Mohamed Yassin, 7n5, 8n9,

Malaya, 17, 28, 43, 53, 63, 70 citizenship, 55–56

9n15, 9n16 Musa Hitam, xii, xv

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politics in, 21–24 Malayan Civil Service, 51

N

Malayan Union, 6, 17–18, 19n3,

Nazrin Shah, Sultan of Perak,

24 Malaya’s First Year at the United

xxiii Ng Ek Teong, 55

Nations: As Reflected in

non-racial party, 23, 24

Dr Ismail’s Reports Home

Norashikin Seth, xviii

to Tunku Abdul Rahman (ISEAS), xii

O

Malay families, 5

Ong Yoke Lin, 55

Malay Graduates’ Association,

Onn bin Ja’afar, 7, 17–19, 21,

22, 26, 33 Malay nationalism, 7, 21

23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 34, 36, 37, 41–42, 47

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86 Index P

on security problems, dealings

PAP. See People’s Action Party (PAP) Parliamentary Election of 1959,

with, 69 Singapore Security Council, 70 Suara Merdeka [Voice of

63

Independence], 31, 32

Party Negara, 47

Subandrio, 64

People’s Action Party (PAP),

Suffian, 33

70–72

Suharto, xxi

Perwanegara, S., 64

Sukarno, 64, 65

Political Committee, 61

Suleiman, 8n7, 17, 30, 47, 48,

Poynton, Hilton, 51 pre-war Johor Constitution,

50 Sultan Ibrahim, 9n18, 10n19,

20n3 pro-Merdeka party, 33

Syed Nasir, 27, 28

R

T

Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail

Tan Cheng Lock, 9n16, 54

and His Time, The (2006),

Tan Siew Sin, 37, 54

xi–xv

Templer, Gerald, xviii, 33, 36,

review of, xxiii–xxviii “Road to Independence, The”, 43 Copyright © 2015. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. All rights reserved.

19n2, 49, 52

38 Tuan Syed Omar, 29 Tun Haji Mohd Salleh, xxvi, xxvii

S

Tunku Abdul Rahman, 17, 26,

Sastrowidjojo, Ali, 61 Senu Abdul Rahman, 65 Seow, Eugene, 26 Singapore constitution of, 70 Ismail Abdul Rahman in, 11–12 medical school students in, 11

28, 36–40, 53–54, 63–65 Suara Merdeka [Voice of Independence], 32 Suleiman, 30 United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), 31 Tun Razak, xiii, xxvii, 26–28, 75–79

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Index 87 12th Session of the General

and Malaysian Chinese

Assembly, 61

Association (MCA), 34, 35, 37

U UMNO General Assembly in Malacca, 52 Unfederated Malay States (UMS),

W Watherston, David, 37 Wong, Elaine, 16n1

19n1 United Malays National

Y Yong Pung How, 54–55

17–18, 23, 24, 31, 36

Yong Shook Lin, 37

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Organisation (UMNO),

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ABOUT THE EDITORS

MOHAMED TAWFIK bin Tun Dr Ismail was appointed as Non-Independent Executive Director of Man Yau Holdings Berhad on 23 July 2001, and also serves as its Executive Chairman and was appointed to Man Yau Holdings Berhad on 8 May 1996. He is a Member of the Audit Committee of Man Yau Holdings. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New England and a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford University. He started his career in 1981 as a Manager of the Malaysian International Merchant Bankers Bhd. In 1984, he joined Fleet Group Sdn Bhd as its General Manager. He was also a Member of Parliament from 1986 to 1990. He was co-editor of Malaya’s First Year at the United Nations: As Reflected in Dr Ismail's Reports Home to Tunku Abdul Rahman with Ooi Kee Beng (2009). OOI Kee Beng is the Deputy Director of ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. He is the editor of Trends in Southeast Asia (ISEAS); and founder-editor of ISEAS Perspective and ISEAS Monitor, as well as Penang Monthly. He writes extensively on Malaysian politics and history, and on Asian nation-building. His book The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (2006) won the “Award of Excellence for Best Writing Published in Book Form on Any Aspect of Asia 88

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About the Editors

89

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(Non-Fiction)” at the Asian Publishing Convention Awards 2008, while Continent, Coast, Ocean: Dynamics of Regionalism in Eastern Asia (co-edited with Ding Choo Ming) was named “Top Academic Work” in 2008 by the ASEAN Book Publishers Association (ABPA). His noted studies of Singapore include Serving a New Nation: Baey Lian Peck’s Singapore Story (2013). His other major works include The Eurasian Core and Its Edges: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World (2015); Lim Kit Siang: Defying the Odds (2015); Young and Malay: Growing Up in Multicultural Malaysia (2015); Merdeka for the Mind: Essays on Malaysian Struggles in the 21 st Century (2015); In Lieu of Ideology: An Intellectual Biography of Goh Keng Swee (2010); Malaya’s First Year at the United Nations: As Reflected in Dr Ismail's Reports Home to Tunku Abdul Rahman (co-edited with Tawfik Ismail, 2009); March 8: Eclipsing May 13 (co-authored with Johan Saravanamuttu and Lee Hock Guan, 2008); and Lost in Transition: Malaysia under Abdullah (2008). He has also translated a series of classic Chinese war manuals into Swedish and English. His PhD thesis is on nation-building in modern times, titled The State and Its Changdao: Sufficient Discursive Commonality in National Renewal, with Malaysia as Case Study (Stockholm). He contributes opinion pieces regularly for regional and global mass media such as The Edge Malaysia.

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