AT Dataran Merdeka on Wednesday 2 August, the Government of Malaysia commemorated the 50th anniversary of former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman’s passing.
Of the many events I attended, this definitely counts as one of the most meaningful: the nation is in search of nation builders, again, and Tun Dr Ismail’s life stories and legacies provide a rare reference point.
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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim gave a passionate speech from the heart without referring to the prepared text.
For Anwar, Tun Dr Ismail’s integrity, incorruptibility, and towering personality loomed large over the nation. As a student leader in the early 1970’s, Anwar wasn’t afraid to speak loudly and firmly in front of the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and other leaders, but when it comes to Ismail, he felt it was necessary to adjust his tone and be deferential.
Tun Dr Ismail put the nation above himself, returning to serve after the May 13 incident in 1969 when he had earlier quit ministerial positions due to health concerns in 1967.
His firm conviction that Malaysia is a multiethnic nation whose people are bound by shared purposes and common destiny is evident by his effort in the drafting and promoting the Rukun Negara.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman
The Reuctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time
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(Datuk Dr Ooi Kee Beng)
It is heartening to see the Unity Government and Prime Minister Anwar giving prominence to the remembrance of the statesman.
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There are many well-known figures in Malaysian politics but not many are known for their integrity, multiethnic Malaysian outlook, effectiveness in governing, and I would add, a strategic mind about geopolitics and the world. Tun Dr Ismail had all these qualities.
Malaya and Malaysia’s nascent nationhood came into being at the heights of the Cold War, and managing geopolitics was critical to the nation’s survival. Tun Dr Ismail was Malaya’s first-ever Ambassador to the United States of America and Representative to the United Nations simultaneously.
Datuk Dr Ooi Kee Beng’s Malaya’s First Year at the United Nations: As Reflected in Dr Ismail’s Reports Home to Tunku Abdul Rahman discussed that period well.
I have a great sense of affinity with Tun Ismail’s legacies in part due to my friendship with Kee Beng, the author of The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr. Ismail and His Time. Through him, I got to know Taufik, the eldest son of Tun Dr Ismail and a former Member of Parliament.
In 2005, not long after I returned from Australia from my studies, I was introduced to Kee Beng.
He was in Kuala Lumpur to interview Tun Dr Ismail’s friends and colleagues. In turn, through his introduction, I was offered a fellowship at the Yusof Ishak Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore.
I could still recall reading one of the first copies of The Reluctant Politician during the rainy last days of December 2006 and then marveling at the sudden storms the book generated in Malaysia and Singapore in the first week of January 2007.
The New Straits Times, then under the leadership of Datuk Kalimullah Hassan, and Singapore’s Straits Times, both published excerpts of the book for days.
The book went into many reprints in the first months of 2007. The legacies of Tun Dr Ismail filled a nation in a flux.
The hope Malaysians placed on Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi faded and gave way to cynicism and disappointment.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the ceremony to Commemorate the Statesman Tun Dr Ismail Al-Haj ‘Pillar of National Unity’ held at Dataran Merdeka on August 2.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (third, left) attending the Commemoration Ceremony of the Statesman Tun Dr Ismail Al-Haj ‘Pillar of National Unity’ held at Dataran Merdeka.
Kee Beng’s research brought the man’s images vivid to those who only know about TTDI or Taman Tun Dr Ismail. It also reminded those who used to know him that there were indeed good men in politics, that politics could still be a calling, that nation building is still a worthy project in Malaysia.
Sixteen years after The Reluctant Politician was published, Malaysia is now given a chance to rebuild the nation through the Unity Government led by Anwar Ibrahim.
Looking at Tun Dr Ismail as a role model, Anwar has signaled his intention to search and groom a new generation of nation builders.
Hopefully the good men and women in politics could pull their weight together and build a better future for all Malaysians.
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