Tengku Abdul Rahman
For his contributions and sacrifices in bringing the country from colonialism to independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman is known as the Father of Independence. He became the first prime minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1957 to1963, and of Malaysia from 1963 to 1970.Tunku was born on February 8, 1903 in Alor Setar, the capital of the State of Kedah. He is the seventh prince of Sultan Abdul Hamid Shah, the twenty fourth Sultan of Kedah, and Che Manjalara. Said to be a robust and bright boy with a particular fondness for sports, Tunku received his early education at the Debsurin School, Bangkok and Penang Free School.
On a Kedah Government scholarship, he went on to study at St. Catherine's College, Cambridge University, where he received his Bachelor of Arts in law and history in 1925. A firsthand experience in racial discrimination with the college's administration was said to have intensified his conviction in fighting for equality and ignited his desire in making his homeland an independent state, free from British colonialism.
His leadership flair also unfolded in England. Realising the Malay students there were not represented by any organisation, he established the Kesatuan Melayu Great Britain (Malay Association of Great Britain) and became its first secretary. After returning home, he joined the Kedah Civil Service as a cadet in the Legal Advisor's Office, and then as a district officer in several Kedah districts. He proved unpopular among some British officials thanks to his outspokenness and tendency to introduce reforms in his quest to improve the living standards of the people.
His attempt at completing his law studies at the Inner Temple in England in 1938 came to a halt due the outbreak of the Second World War. He resumed his studies eight years later and came home with his legal qualifications in 1949. The political awareness he gained while making friends with people from various nations in England did not go to waste, when he was made chairman of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) soon after his return. On August 26, 1951, Tunku became the UMNO President succeeding Dato' Onn Jaafar. He travelled all over the country meeting people from all walks of life to promote unity. His efforts in overcoming the country's political problems by way of cooperation among the various ethnic groups saw the birth of the Alliance Party in 1955.
The British had promised in the Federation Agreement of 1948 to grant eventual self-rule to Malaya. Nevertheless, the colonial government insisted upon evidence of national unity before granting independence. Certainly, evidence of racial harmony was lacking. The immediate postwar period had given evidence of strong communal animosities. Politics, both legal and illegal, were in the hands of communally organized groups. The non-Communist Chinese formed the Malayan Chinese Association in 1949. The Indians had formed their party, the Malayan Indian Congress, 3 years earlier. Dato Onn bin Ja'afar tried to broaden his national organization, the UMNO, to include non-Malays and failed. In 1951, when municipal elections were held as Malaya's first step toward democratic self-government, the communalist parties defeated all those organized on multiracial lines.
Having failed to convert the UMNO to his views, Onn left the UMNO and founded a new party, the Independence of Malaya Party, open to all "Malayans," that is, citizens of Malaya. To contest Onn's new party in the Kuala Lumpur municipal elections of 1952, a pragmatic, British-educated scion of Kedah royalty, Tengku (Prince) Abdul Rahman, the new leader of UMNO, formed an alliance with the Malayan Chinese Association, putting up Malay candidates in Malay wards and Chinese candidates in Chinese wards. The partnership won the election and, calling itself the Alliance Party, won 94 out of 124 seats contested in various local elections held all over Malaya between 1952 and 1954. In 1955 the Malayan Indian Congress joined the Alliance Party, and Abdul Rahman led this coalition to a spectacular victory, 51 out of 52 elected seats in the 99-member Federal Legislative Council.
Malaya's independence movement was remarkable for the speed with which it achieved its goal and for the nonparticipation of Communists. When independence came in 1957, the guerrilla war, although greatly reduced in force, had still 3 years to run, and the independent government from its inception has retained a strong anti-Communist posture.
In the second half of 1960 prime ministers Tengku Abdul Rahman of the Federation of Malaya and Lee Kuan Yew of the State of Singapore held a series of talks with Duncan Sandys, secretary of Commonwealth relations of the United Kingdom. As a result, the scope of the proposed association was enlarged to include the three Bornean territories of Sarawak, Brunei, and North Borneo (Sabah) and thereby provide an ethnic composition for the projected federation.
The elite group in the federal government has been remarkably stable. Of the 14 members of the "Emergency cabinet" in late 1969, four had held cabinet-level posts since 1955. These were Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak, Tan Sri V. T. Sambanthan, and Tan Sri Sardon bin Haji Jubir. The elite group in the federal government has been largely unified by Tengku Abdul Rahman (called the Tengku), whose influence on behalf of the acceptance of the Alliance system and the unity of the elite has been crucial, particularly in the face of the periodic conflicts over the role of the Chinese.
The Tengku had been Malaysia's prime minister since independence. Born on February 8, 1903, he is the seventh son of a Kedah sultan and a daughter of a Siamese Shan State chieftain. He attended a Malay school and a British school in Alor Star before going to a Siamese school in Bangkok. He later enrolled at Saint Catherine's College, in Cambridge, England, and was the first Kedah Malay to graduate from an English university (in 1925). Although he took up the study of law in his youth at Inner Temple in England, he did not become a barrister until 1949, at the age of 46. During the 1930's the Tengku worked in the Kedah Civil Service and served as district officer in various districts of the state.
During the Japanese occupation of World War II, the Tengku worked against the enemy and developed a sense of nationalism that later dominated his life. He cofounded UMNO with Dato Onn bin Ja'afar in 1946 and became its president in 1951. The Tengku was largely credited for bringing about the independence of his country and the creation of Malaysia. As prime minister, the Tengku displayed pragmatism in domestic as well as foreign policy. In later years he increasingly delegated responsibility to others, reserving his energy for major issues, particularly in the field of foreign affairs.
Under his leadership, the Alliance won the country's first general election in July 1955. Tunku was then appointed the country's Chief Minister and Minister of Home Affairs. In 1956, he led a mission to London for a discussion with the British government concerning the independence for Malaya. The meeting resulted in the signing of the Independent Treaty at Lancaster House in London on February 8, 1956 and consequently, the independence of Malaya in August 31, 1957. Tunku was then elected as the first Prime Minister of Malaya, and led the Alliance to victory in the 1959, 1964 and 1969 general elections.
During Tengku Abdul Rahman's premiership, any program or project that needed to be emphasized or conducted with special drive was usually brought under his department, through which his position as party leader, his personality, and the part he played in obtaining independence for his country could be used most effectively.
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