My father would be shocked, says Nazir Razak

By admin-s Last updated Jan 14, 2015

(TMI) – “I think he would be shocked that it is 2015 and race and religion divide Malaysians even more today than during his time.”

The youngest son of Malaysia’s second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak, who died on this day 39 years ago, has called for the setting up of a national consultative council to bring Malaysians together, just as his father did after the 1969 race riots.

Banker Datuk Seri Nazir Razak said this when asked by The Malaysian Insider (TMI) what message his father would convey if he could speak to Malaysians today.

“I think he would say that it is time to set up another national consultative council, like he did in 1970, to discuss critical issues around preserving harmony and fostering unity amongst Malaysians,” says Nazir. “I think he would be shocked that it is 2015 and race and religion divide Malaysians even more today than during his time.”

Nazir was replying to questions posed to him and his other brothers, Johari, Nizam and Nazim about their father as part of a series of articles TMI will be publishing over the next few days to mark the passing of Razak, who died of leukaemia in London in 1976, to the shock of the nation, at the young age of 54.

Razak and his wife Tun Rahah had five sons and the eldest is, of course, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Taking over as Prime Minister in 1971, Razak formed the Barisan Nasional to include erstwhile opposition parties like PAS, the Gerakan and SUPP as part of his national reconciliation efforts.

Abroad, his biggest achievement was establishing diplomatic relations with Communist China in 1974 – the first member of Asean to do so. Beijing had till then supported communist insurgencies in many southeast Asian countries.

Historians say that it was unfortunate that Razak died too soon as he was only into the fifth year of implementing key policies introduced post 1969, like the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the National Education Policy that led to the conversion of the medium of instruction in national schools from English to Bahasa Malaysia.

Despite the fact that radical policies were introduced to stabilise the country post 1969 and were opposed by some as being pro-Malays, those who knew him well and even his political opponents say that Razak was a strong advocate of moderation and multi-racialism.

“As the most outstanding leader among our founding fathers, it was Tun Razak who wished our country to be the multi-religious, multi-racial one that would be to the well being of all Malaysians,” says Tun Musa Hitam, who back in the early 1970s was deemed as a young turk of Umno and a prodigy of Razak.

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang says that together with Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn, Razak made sure that Malaysia stayed as a strong secular and multiracial society in the first 25 years after independence.

“During their premierships from 1957 to 1981, the basis of Malaysia as a multi-racial, democratic, secular state where Islam is the federal religion was not in question,” he told TMI.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, then a young civil servant, says Razak was an inspiration to civil servants as he led by example. “As a prime minister, he touched all our lives by his wonderful example. And at that time, we took it for granted because such was the ethics of civil service then,” he says.

Another trait of Razak that was legendary was his frugality and his careful use of public money and this was something he had always impressed on his children.

“He made sure of the distinction between private funds and public funds,” says Nizam. “Spending on family was always private (money).”

Tun Abdul Razak, seen here with a young Nazir Razak, was a busy man but he still had time for his children. – File pic, January 14, 2015.

Below is the full Q&A with Johari, Nizam, Nazim and Nazir. Over the next few days TMI will be carrying the interviews with Musa, Lim, Ramon, Kassim Ahmad, Tan Sri Abdullah (Kok Lanas) Ahmad and Tan Sri Michael Chen on their thoughts on Razak and his legacy.