TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
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The Making of a Prime Minister<br />
(M. SARAVANAMUTTU)<br />
Cambridge and Penang Days—Independent Spirit of Kedah Royal<br />
Family—The Ozair Incident—Kidnapping of Father—Disillusioned by<br />
Japanese—Reaction to McMichael Treaties—Leaves Home State—<br />
D.P.P. at Kuala Lumpur—President of UMNO—Prime Minister of<br />
Malaya.<br />
I first came to know of Tunku Abdul Rahman from my younger<br />
brother, S. Saravanamuttu, who was with him at the same college at<br />
Cambridge, St. Catherine's. This was in the early 1920's. I had<br />
already come down from Oxford and was in London, playing cricket<br />
for the Indian Gymkhana. When my brother came to London for<br />
the summer vacation in 1921, he told me about his friend, a Malayan<br />
Prince, who, he said, was a very fine fellow and with whom he used to<br />
go to dances. I believe Rahman had a two-seater car and the pair of<br />
them used to play truant and run up to Bedford for the dances there.<br />
At Oxford, I had met his elder brother, the late Sultan Badlishah,<br />
who was at Wadham College and I was introduced to him by a<br />
Ceylonese, Elmar Mack, who was at the same college and who later<br />
passed into the Indian Civil Service.<br />
At Oxford at the same time was His Highness Sultan Ismail of<br />
Johore, who was the first Asian to be admitted to that highly exclusive<br />
institution in those days, Magdalene College.<br />
It will thus be seen that my contact with Malaya dates more<br />
than a decade before my arrival in Penang in 1931.<br />
My first meeting with Tunku Abdul Rahman was when he returned<br />
from England in 1931 and it took place at the Wembley<br />
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