Tunku Abdul Rahman

Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah (‏تونكو عبد الرحمن ڤوترا الحاج ابن سلطان عبد الحميد حليم شاه; 8 February 19036 December 1990) was a Malaysian statesman and lawyer who served as the first prime minister of Malaysia and the head of government of its predecessor states from 1955 to 1970.

Tunku Abdul Rahman born on 8 February 1903, in Alor Setar, Kedah, the seventh son and one of 45 children of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, the twenty-sixth ruler of the Kedah Sultanate.

Tunku's mother was Cik Menyelara (Nueang Nandanagara), a Thai, and the sixth wife of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah; she was the daughter of Luang Naraborirak (Kleb Nandanagara), a district officer in Thailand.

He returned home in 1915 to continue his education at the Penang Free School.

When Tunku was 17, he won the Kedah State Government scholarship to further his studies at Cambridge University.

After about a year, Tunku realised that he was making very little progress in his studies.

After a meeting with Mr. Ezekiel, his guardian, in the office of the Crown Agents, Ezekiel arranged for Tunku to move to Cambridge and to be taught by and live with Basil Atkinson.

Atkinson was an experienced tutor and he also prepared Tunku to sit in a university entrance examination known as "Little Go".

The following year, he took the entrance exams and he obtained high marks for all his papers with a Pass for the whole examination.

At that time, cholera and malaria were very common all over Kedah and at least two of Tunku's brothers and his older sister died from cholera while Tunku himself suffered from intermittent attacks of malaria until he left for London in 1920.

He received early education at the Alor Setar Malay Primary School before furthering his studies at the government English school, Sultan Abdul Hamid College.

He and his fellow siblings were later sent by his parents to Debsirin School in Bangkok.

He was accepted as an undergraduate at St Catharine's College, one of the colleges of the University of Cambridge, and graduated with a bachelor's degree of Arts in Law and History in 1925.

Five years after sailing from Singapore, at the age of 23, he sailed home.

The Crown Agents secured Tunku a berth in a passenger ship, which stopped at Penang.

Tunku Ibrahim, the Regent, and his eldest brother was unhappy with Tunku's choice of degrees and he ordered Tunku to return to England to be admitted to the English Bar.

On Tunku's initiative, the Malay Society of Great Britain was formed, with Tuanku Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan (later the 1st Yang Di-Pertuan Agong) as president and Tunku Abdul Rahman of Kedah as Honorary Secretary and the driving force.

In January 1931, Tunku was appointed a Cadet in the Kedah Civil Service.

Later, he was transferred to Kulim as Assistant District Officer.

In Kulim, Tunku devoted much of his time touring the district and getting to know the problems of the peasants who made up 90% of the population.

Tunku also devoted some of his time to prepare for Cadet's Law exam to qualify for the promotion.

He took the exams and passed them on his first attempt.

About a year later, Tunku was promoted to be District Officer of Padang Terap.

The post of District Officer of Padang Terap was unpopular because Kuala Nerang was rife with malaria.

As soon as Tunku took over the district, he gave orders for a survey to be made of the swamps which bordered the town, obtained an estimate for draining them, and applied to the State Secretariat for the necessary funds.

Unfortunately, Tunku's plea for funds was rejected.

He wrote again to the State Secretariat, asking that funds be made available to drain the swamps and to rid Kuala Nerang of the main breeding place of the carriers of malaria.

This time the money came and the work was carried out under Tunku's supervision.

Because Tunku Ibrahim, the Regent, was known to be strongly opposed to mixed marriages and since there was a law in Kedah which forbade members of the royal family to marry non-Malays without the prior approval of the Ruler or Regent, the Tunku married Violet Coulson who lived in Penang.

In 1934, the Regent died unexpectedly and was succeeded as Regent by Tunku Mahmud, the Sultan's younger brother, who was more broad-minded and gave consent to the marriage.

This enabled Violet to move to Kuala Nerang, but the Secretary to the Government showed his disapproval by transferring Tunku to the isolated post of District Officer at Langkawi.

The district consisted of a group of islands, thinly populated, sparsely cultivated, and without roads.

He was the first chief minister of the Federation of Malaya from 1955 to 1957.

He supervised the independence process that culminated on 31 August 1957.

As an independent Malaysia's first prime minister, he dominated the country's politics for the next 13 years.

In 1963, he successfully incorporated the Federation of Malaya, British North Borneo (renamed Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore into the state of Malaysia.

However, tensions between the Malay and Chinese communities resulted in Singapore's expulsion in 1965.

His poor performance during race riots in Kuala Lumpur in 1969 led to his resignation in 1970.

Commonly known simply as "Tunku" (a Malay royal title), Tunku Abdul Rahman is widely regarded, even by his critics, as Malaysia's "founding father", the architect of Malayan independence and of the formation of Malaysia.

As such, he is often referred to as Father of Independence (Bapa Kemerdekaan) or Father of Malaysia (Bapa Malaysia).