TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library

TRIBUTE TO TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
accepted his leadership Tunku Abdul Rahman proceeded to inject
his own realism into his closest friends and through them to the
general Malay community.
The Tunku realised very early in his political career that the
Malay community had only belatedly and hesitatingly entered into
the modern world, and therefore they had to work hard to catch up
with the immigrant racial groups who had progressed much further.
At the same time however he also realised that the Malays could
not make any headway without the goodwill, co-operation and help
of other racial groups. Jt was, therefore , a stroke of genius to have
brought together the three main ethnic groups to share in the
administration ofthe country. From this sagacious arrangement,
a political expediency no doubt, has arisen every hope of integration
ofa Malayan nation.
One country in South-east Asia which has so far retained its
democratic institutions despite great internal diversity is Malaya.
Here, on the basis of what happened else-where the Jeremiahs were,
and still are, entitled to assume that radical discord must soon bring
civil strife or strong-man rule, or both, but the Tunku and the
Alliance have been able to hold the leading parties together within
the constitutional framework. Malaya has been independent
only since 1957 and known precedents suggest that the momentum
derived from the British period and the elan coming from winning
independence take a longer time than this to run down.
It is inevitable that as the Malays develop their own middle
class and intelligentsia and become more urbanised there will be a
shift in internal power relationships. Almost the whole of the
Malay political leadership has been drawn from the traditional
governing class. A similar shift as in the Malay community will
occur in the Chinese as its lower strata is enfranchised and challenges
the power of the rich and generally conservative elements which
control the Malayan Chinese Association.
Politicians, more frequently than not. are prone to use their
power and influence in a national sense and rarely look beyond the
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