Tunku Abdul Rahman died a sad man, says grandchild

INTERVIEW | He is fondly remembered as the father of independence, but Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj is said to have passed away a sad man.

Speaking to Malaysiakini, the first prime minister’s grandchild Tunku Muinuddin Putra Ahmad Nerang recalled that this was due to the deregistration of Umno around the time of his death in 1990.

“Any father would be disappointed if his child - and for him this was Umno - were to be killed with a court decision that deregistered the party.

“Umno was like his flesh and blood (and this decision) was akin to the party being beheaded and murdered.

“The Umno we have now is not the Umno he helped build. In fact, when he died, Tunku Abdul Rahman was not even an Umno member.

Tunku Muinuddin Putra Ahmad Nerang

“What he was most disappointed about was when the court deregistered Umno, that made him feel disappointed the most.

“He helped set up Umno, he shaped Umno. Tunku died in sadness,” said Tunku Muinuddin in a recent interview.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had in 1988 declared Umno illegal.

This came at a time when Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was the party president and prime minister at the time, was embroiled in a power struggle with then-finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

In the 1987 Umno general assembly, Tengku Razaleigh challenged Mahathir for the presidency and lost by a narrow 43 votes. This was after then-Umno Youth chief, a young Najib Abdul Razak, had thrown his support behind Mahathir.

Those from Tengku Razaleigh’s team, famously dubbed the “Umno 11”, later challenged the party election result in court. This eventually led to Umno being declared illegal.

After the original party was deregistered, Tunku Abdul Rahman attempted to establish a new party called Umno Malaysia but its registration was rejected. Umno was eventually resurrected in the form of Mahathir’s Umno Baru, later renamed to just Umno.

Buried hatchet

According to Tunku Muinuddin, any personal bad blood between his grandfather and Mahathir was settled before the former passed away.

“There were misunderstandings between my late grandfather and Mahathir, but the Tunku forgave him.

“Mahathir was at Tunku’s bedside before he died, and he apologised,” he recalled.

Tunku Abdul Rahman (far left) 

When Tunku Abdul Rahman became ill and was hospitalised, Mahathir paid him a visit. 

Tunku Muinuddin said his grandfather's doctors had asked Mahathir, a qualified medical doctor himself, for advice.

"Tun (Mahathir) advised the doctors to switch off the life support machine as Tunku was already unconscious at the time," he added.

Not long after the May 13 riots in 1969, a young Mahathir had written a widely circulated letter to Tunku Abdul Rahman criticising the then-premier’s leadership and calling him to resign.

The letter was said to have hurt Tunku Abdul Rahman deeply, and he blamed it for sullying his political career.

Mahathir was then fired from the Umno supreme council and expelled from the party, only to be brought back in 1970 by Tunku Abdul Rahman’s successor and Najib’s father Abdul Razak Hussein.  - Mkini