TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library

FRANK SULLIVAN
While we were in Brussels, the Press reported that Malaya had
refused permission for two Dutch aircraft to land here on their way
to West Irian. That was the day before we left Brussels by air for
Amsterdam, and naturally we expected that the Press would be
asking questions of the Prime Minister when he arrived. Of course,
they did, but I will say more on this later.
The Tunku's tour of the Netherlands was most admirably
arranged, and from the very first moment it was clear he was most
welcome. In fact, the Tunku told the Press at the airport, "I have
only met your Prime Minister, Prof. Le Quai, for a few moments,
but I am sure we are going to get along very well together", and
that remark anticipated subsequent events. Not only was the
Tunku received with full honours at Schipol airport, but he also
received a full-dress welcome in the Press, as nearly every Dutch
newspaper carried feature articles about the Tunku and Malaya.
Looking nostalgically backwards to the story of Indonesia, they
quite frankly welcomed him as the leader of a newly independent
nation which represented to them what might have been. They
also warmly praised his stand at the Commonwealth Prime Ministers'
Conference in London. It should be remembered that a little more
than a month before the Dutch Parliament had passed a resolution
condemning apartheid.
Apart from the Dutch Government's dinner in his honour,
the Prime Minister, together with the Minister of Health and Social
Welfare, Dato Ong Yoke Lin, lunched privately with Her Majesty
Queen Juliana, and it was at her suggestion that the Tunku added to
his already crowded programme to pay a visit to the great Flower
Show in Rotterdam.
Altogether our Prime Minister travelled more than a thousand
miles by air and road in Holland in less than four days. He
inspected the Fokker Aircraft Company, flew in one of their planes
to the industrial area of Maastricht in the South-East corner of
the country (incidentally learning that not all Holland is flat),
and then back right across to the delta of the Rhine. So on the
very first day he had a good over-all picture of this energetic,
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