Merdeka Book Review

Ok folks, in the spirit of our Merdeka Golden Jubilee today, lets try something different today- ie. a book review.

I have just finished reading the book " The Reluctant Politician" - basically a biography of one of the least understood and a "could-have-been" 3rd PM of Malaysia if not for his untimely death in 1973: Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman.

What attracted me are 2 things. One, why the lack of infomation on Dr Ismail from our pre-historic (no pun intended) text books? Yes, plenty of mention of TAR and his "Looking Back" and Tun Razak and his DEB/ NEP. But no credits of the then DPM of Malaysia from 1971-1973. Two, excerpts from this book mentioned his role in the aftermath of the May 13th 1969 - another pet interest of mine for the reason that it is also conveniently 'blanco-ed' from our official history.

The book started off in a shocking manner describing how the then Acting PM (since Tun Razak was away overseas) stumbled to his death after a heart attack at home, all alone. It then retraces his beginnings in Johor Bahru as a son of a local politician with 8 other siblings and 9 adopted Chinese sisters..

It then describes how he quit his 3rd year of medical school in Singapore after he refuses to give away his dance partner to his anatomy professor in a cabaret. He later lambasted the college as being " operated by a bunch of Gestapos" and continued a further 5 years of study in Melbourne. In between the serious stuff, more merry making ensued, ranging from simple countryside hiking to wine and women.

Upon returning to our shores and after a brief fling as a GP in JB, the lure of politics and the Merdeka spirit proved irresistible as he joined the government first as Malaya's 1st ambassador to the USA & UN and later as Minister of Internal Security & Minister of Home Affairs.

At the end of his tenure, the lasting impression I got is that he is like a version of the "Justice Pao' of 1960-70s Malaysian politics. According to his good childhood friend Robert Kuok (Malaysia's richest man now): " he is a man of strong character, high principles and great sense of fairness...probably the most non racial and non racist Malay I've ever met. Doc was a stickler of total fair play and correctness. Every Malay colleague fear him because of this, including Mahathir". People who ran afoul of the law irregardless, will feel the strong arm of the ISA- he even declared he will throw his own mother in jail if she did anything illegal ! His admirers range from LKY to TAR to Musa Hitam to Lim Kit Siang (though he did throw him into jail once) to our current PM.

All in all, a very good read. For history buffs like me it provided a good way to fill that little spot in our nation's history that up to now had remained empty. Personally, I think that Tun Ismail's role in our history was downplayed significantly not least because in his line of his duty, he had stepped on to many a people's shoes including getting a certain Dr M thrown out of the party.

So next up.. a book that has been banned in Malaysia: Alias Chin Peng- my side of history !