TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library
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<strong>TRIBUTE</strong> TO TUNKU <strong>ABDUL</strong> RAHMAN<br />
gether with his friend, Syed Abu Bakar Al-Idrus, waited forthe<br />
Sultan at Kepala Batas junction. The first car with the police<br />
escort passed by and two minutes later came the yellow Rolls-<br />
Royce of the Sultan. He stopped it, jumped into the car and<br />
forced the driver to take the turn to Kulim. It was only<br />
when they reached Penang that those following the Sultan<br />
realised that they had arrived without the Ruler. After some<br />
investigation, they found that Rahman had his father with<br />
him in Kulim.<br />
The Regent, Tunku Badlishah, phoned Rahman up and<br />
asked him to bring the Sultan to Penang immediately or else he<br />
would order his arrest. Rahman replied that he could conic<br />
and take the Sultan if he liked butitwouldbeonlyoverhisdead<br />
body. He was prepared to fight it out. It was later that day<br />
that the Japanese bombed Penang and in the evening, Badlishah<br />
himself came to seek the protection of his brother Abdul<br />
Rahman at Kulim.<br />
It transpired that morning, when the Sultan reached<br />
Gurun the officer-in-charge of the convoy arranged for the cars to<br />
travel at two-minute intervals to avoid the dust and that is how<br />
the others lost sight of the Sultan because Rahman's bold action<br />
took place within these two minutes. But if this arrangement<br />
for two-minute intervals had not been made, there would be no<br />
knowing what would have happened to Rahman. He would<br />
probably not be alive to lead the country, because, according to<br />
him, he would have shot it out.<br />
Viewed in the light of calm reason, it will be agreed that Tunku<br />
Abdul Rahman's concept that his father's duty as the ruler of his<br />
people was to remain with them in time of trouble was the correct<br />
one, but his ability to make that split-second decision at the time of<br />
crisis, when all the others had acquiesced in the evacuation, carries<br />
the stamp of the true leader - who was later to become the firstt<br />
Prime Minister of Malaya.<br />
Of course the Japanese could not make enough fuss of Tunku ar<br />
lirst for having kept his father behind but he soon found them out fo<br />
36
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