Remembering Tun Dr Ismail

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Nov 15, 2009

By Ron CK Sim

I was told that in the early 70’s, many Malaysians believed that Malaysia would one day have a medically-trained PM in the name of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman (following on after our first two English-trained Barrister PMs). Never had they thought that it turned out not to be him but another medical doctor by the name of Mahathir Mohamad.

Almost two years ago, I asked a group of friends during one of our mamak stall sessions whether they know a man by the name of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman. I received some weird stares. And quite expectedly, none of these three friends of mine actually had a clue of who this man was.

This is a clear proof of the failure of our education system, so I thought. Or was there a deliberate policy not to publicly acknowledge Tun Dr Ismail’s contribution to nation building – simply because his ideals, principles and sense of fairness were not in sync with our former PM of 22 years?

It is a shame to our country that Tun Dr Ismail’s biography titled “The Reluctant Politician” was only published 33 long years after his eventful passing, and by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) which is based in Singapore! Why not a Malaysian publisher? Why the long wait?

The story goes that no Malaysian publishers dared to venture into the project lest it be seen that they were going against a certain Almighty PM! At least, Malaysians should be grateful that the long-awaited biography was authored by a fellow Malaysian, the renowned Dr Ooi Kee Beng, with Tun Dr Ismail’s eldest son, Tawfik, as consultant and adviser to the project.

To put it in historical perspective, Malaysia as a nation changed forever on that “fateful” night of 2nd August 1973. That night, Malaysia lost its most faithful and dependable son, DPM Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, because of a fatal heart attack. He was Malaya’s 3rd man throughout the negotiation for independence and nationhood, the formative years after independence, the communist insurgency, the formation of a new country called Malaysia and the Indonesian aggression thereafter, the eventual separation with Singapore, and the formation of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).