The Shahbandar who became Prime Minister

 Tun Abdul Razak was Pahang’s tenth Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar.

From the Tengku Ampuan of Pahang, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah

Last week, I attended a screening of Man Who Walked the Talk: The Tun Razak Story. As I watched his life unfold, something dawned on me. My thoughts returned to the Hukum Kanun Pahang, the manuscript I had spent so much time studying, and to the responsibilities of the Shahbandar within its account of government.

I began to see Tun Razak’s life through another lens: the tradition of service from which he came.

In an interview after the screening, I said, “It is in their blood, from one generation to another.”

I meant the understanding of responsibility that can grow within a family over generations. A child observes how his father serves, listens to the matters discussed around him and gradually learns what public office demands.

We understand this in a royal household. A prince learns something of the art of kingship by observing his father long before he is called upon to exercise it. Watching the documentary, I realised that a similar education took place in the household of a Shahbandar.

Tun Abdul Razak was himself the tenth Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar.

The Shahbandar had become Prime Minister.

There was something deeply moving in that thought. A son of Pahang had carried his upbringing, experience and understanding of duty into the service of an entire nation.

In Pahang, the Orang Besar Berempat comprises the Orang Kaya Indera Perba Jelai, Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar, Orang Kaya Indera Pahlawan and Orang Kaya Indera Segara. Each held responsibilities within the administration of the state, with a particular territory under his authority.

They supported the ruler in governing: offering counsel, administering affairs and exercising the authority entrusted to them. In modern terms, aspects of their work might be compared to the responsibilities of ministers. Their offices belonged, however, to a different political order, and were distinct from succession to the throne.

Of these four titles familiar to us in Pahang today, it was the Shahbandar that I encountered in my study of the Hukum Kanun Melaka and the Hukum Kanun Pahang.

That recognition returned to me during the screening. The Shahbandar was already an important officer in the world described by those legal texts. Centuries later, a man bearing that title would lead Malaysia.

The earlier office and the later hereditary Pahang title must be understood in their respective historical settings. Yet the connection invites us to look more closely at the traditions of government from which Tun Razak emerged.

There is an important distinction to make. The Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar holds office by royal appointment of the Sultan of Pahang. Although the title has remained within the same family across generations, it does not pass automatically from father to son.

Generations of Shahbandars have served Pahang’s rulers, offering counsel and assisting in the affairs of government according to the responsibilities of their time.

Across generations, this relationship has carried a continuing responsibility: to support the ruler in serving Pahang and its people.

Tun Razak was the tenth holder. His son, Najib, became the eleventh, and his grandson, Nizar, the twelfth.

The Sultan appoints the officeholder. The family can help prepare him to fulfil its responsibilities.

That preparation is what interests me.

A son growing up in such a household could observe how his father advised the ruler, received those seeking assistance and dealt with the affairs of the state. He could learn how to listen, how to weigh competing concerns and how to carry the expectations attached to the family’s position.

Just as a prince could learn the art of kingship from his father, a future Shahbandar could learn the responsibilities of government and service from him.

This is an inheritance that does not appear neatly in a family tree. Genealogy records names, relationships and the succession of titles. The knowledge passed through daily example is harder to trace, but deserves our attention.

The family’s history in Pahang reaches back to 1722 and to forebears who came from Sulawesi. That migration also carried knowledge and craftsmanship, including the weaving tradition associated with Tenun Pahang. The similarities between the textiles of Pahang and Sulawesi bear witness to a shared cultural history.

For me, this connection has particular meaning. My work with Tenun Pahang has taught me how knowledge survives through people: through hands that demonstrate, eyes that observe and younger generations willing to learn.

My study of the Hukum Kanun Pahang has brought me to another form of knowledge, the understanding of authority, duty and the ordering of a state.

At the screening, those two strands of my own work came together in an unexpected way. I found myself thinking about what families carry across generations, whether in craftsmanship or public service, and how that inheritance can find new expression.

Tun Razak succeeded his father as Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar in 1950. He became Pahang State Secretary in 1952 and Menteri Besar in 1955. His subsequent career took him to the offices of Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister of Malaysia.

His field of responsibility grew, from the affairs of Pahang to the affairs of a nation.

When I say that he carried Pahang to Malaysia, I mean that he brought something of his formation in Pahang into national service. His roots remained part of him as he undertook responsibilities far beyond the state from which he came.

Every appointment nevertheless demanded his own ability, judgment and commitment. An upbringing could prepare him; the work remained his to do.

That is why the documentary’s title is so fitting. Man Who Walked the Talk directs us to the actions through which he fulfilled his responsibilities.

Watching it, I saw both the man’s achievements and a question about his formation. What had he learned from the generations before him? What understanding of service had he absorbed in the household where he grew up? How might that experience have shaped the way he approached government?

These are questions worth exploring alongside the familiar record of his education and political career.

For me, the Hukum Kanun Pahang has made the offices of our earlier government more visible. Behind each title stood a person entrusted with responsibilities. Behind that person might stand generations of experience, remembered and taught within a family.

I had gone to watch a documentary about Tun Razak. I came away reflecting on the inheritance of an art: the art of governing, learned through example and proved through service.

The Shahbandar had become Prime Minister.

And a tradition of responsibility rooted in Pahang had found a larger field of service in Malaysia.

May Allah grant Tun Abdul Razak His mercy and reward him for the good he brought to the people.

Al-Fatihah.

Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah holds a master’s degree from the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC), International Islamic University Malaysia, and is currently a PhD candidate at ISTAC-IIUM.

- FMT