Abdul Rahman (politician, 1903)

Tunku Abdul Rahman

Abdul Rahman (born February 8, 1903 in Alor Setar , Kedah , † December 6, 1990 in Penang ) was Chief Minister ( Prime Minister ) of the Malay Federation from 1955 and its first Prime Minister after achieving independence in 1957. After joining the British colonies of Sabah , Sarawak and Singapore (which left in 1965) he was also the premier of Malaysia . His full name was Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah . Tunku is a Malay prince title. He was the "father of independence" of Malaysia. From 1959 to 1965 he was the first president of the Badminton Asia Confederation .

youth

Born in the Bridal Palace (Istana Pelamin) in Alor Star, in the Malay Sultanate of Kedah - at that time a vassal state of the Kingdom of Siam (forerunner of today's Thailand) - Abdul Rahman was the 14th son and the 20th child of the 24th Sultan of Kedah, Abdul Hamid Halim Shah. His mother, Cik Menjalara, was the sixth wife of the Sultan and the daughter of a Siamese nobleman, Luang Naraborirak, a Thai district official under King Chulalongkorn of Siam.

At the age of six he first attended the Malay elementary school , later the English-speaking government school in Alor Star. At the age of eight he was sent to the Debsirin School in Bangkok ( Thailand ) with three of his brothers ; In 1915 he returned and attended the Penang Free School. In 1918, at the age of 15, he became the first local to receive a scholarship to attend St Catharine's College at Cambridge University in Great Britain .

Early career

Upon his return he worked in the civil service of his home state Kedah and became the first local district officer, but then returned to England to complete his law degree. The outbreak of World War II ended this again and he returned to Malaya. He resumed his studies in 1947, passed his bar exam in 1949, returned to Alor Star, and became a deputy prosecutor in a Kuala Lumpur court .

During this time he also joined the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which sought independence for the British colony. He quickly made a career there and became its chairman in August 1951, a post he was to keep for 20 years.

From Malaya to Malaysia

In 1954 he led a delegation to Britain to negotiate independence, but this did not lead to any result as the British were reluctant to grant independence without any guarantee that the three major populations - Malays , Chinese and Indian - would live together peacefully. However, Tunku Abdul Rahman succeeded in establishing a political alliance with the organization of the Chinese (Malayan Chinese Association) , which the Indians (Malayan Indian Congress) also joined in 1955 . This Alliance Party (Alliance Party) won in the general election in the same year 51 of 52 parliamentary seats, and he became the Premier (Chief Minister) selected. In the same year he led another delegation to Great Britain and succeeded in setting independence day for the Malay Peninsula on August 31, 1957. As premier of the new nation, he was re-elected by overwhelming majorities in the 1959 and 1964 elections.

Yet but were Singapore , Sarawak , British North Borneo and the Sultanate of Brunei British Crown Colonies . When they were granted independence by Great Britain in 1963, all - except Brunei - joined the Malay Federation on September 16, 1963, which then renamed itself to Malaysia. Abdul Rahman also remained prime minister of the new federation. However, problems soon arose with the large minority (40%) of the Chinese who had emerged from Singapore's accession, and whose leader, Lee Kuan Yew , was in clear rivalry with Tunku. This resulted in Singapore leaving Malaysia on August 9, 1965.

Tunku Abdul Rahman was a leader in founding the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) from Malaya, Thailand and the Philippines, which was expanded to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) on August 8, 1967 .

In 1969 the Allianz party lost a large number of its seats in the elections. This led to demonstrations, which in turn sparked racial unrest on May 13th . Dissatisfied with the way in which Abdul Rahman dealt with the unrest, a number of UMNO leaders formed an emergency committee, restricted the prime minister's power and forced him to resign on September 22, 1970, which was also followed by his resignation as UMNO president (June 1971 ). Tun Razak became the new prime minister .

Next life

Abdul Rahman then retired to Penang, where he owned a house. In 1977, Abdul Rahman acquired substantial shares in the Penang newspaper "The Star" and became its chairman. He wrote several columns there, including "Looking Back" and "How I See It", which were critical of the Malaysian government. The newspaper was banned in 1987, prompting Abdul Rahman and another former prime minister to form a new party, UMNO Malaysia, but Mahatir Mohammad refused to register. In the 1990s, Abdul Rahman supported an opposition party, "Semangat 46" (spirit of 1946, the year UMNO was founded), which played a relevant role in the opposition, and campaigned for it in 1990. At that time, however, his health was very poor, and he died in his Penang home on December 6, 1990, at the age of 87. He was buried in the Royal Mausoleum in Alor Setar.

Marriages

Abdul Rahman was married four times. He had two sons with his first wife, the Chinese Meriam Chong. After her death, he married his former landlady in England, Violet Coulson, but had to divorce her on the orders of the regent of Kedah. As the third woman he married the Malay Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah, with whom he adopted four children, as they could not have their own. However, because he wanted more children of his own, he secretly married a Chinese woman, Bibi Chong, who converted to Islam . She bore him two daughters.

Orders and honors

In 1961, Tunku Abdul Rahman received the Order of the Companions of Honor from Queen Elizabeth II . In 1983 he received the King Faisal Prize for Services to Islam.

Web links

• Biography (English)