special The negotiations for Independence (Merdeka) started in 1955 and Malaya became an independent country on Aug 31, 1957 with Tunku Abdul Rahman as prime minister. Singapore, Sarawak and Sabah joined the Malaysian merger in 1963. However, Singapore left the federation two years later.

Meanwhile, within the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA), there was factional strife. A faction emerged in 1957 around Dr Lim Chong Eu. In 1958, Lim was voted MCA president over Tan Cheng Lock. As the 1959 federal elections drew close, Lim pressed for more seats against the 29 allocated by the Alliance National Council. The Tunku replied by announcing that Umno would contest the election without MCA. In the process, Lim resigned as MCA leader and only MCA members acceptable to the Tunku appeared on the Alliance ticket for the 1959 elections.


K Das: As Merdeka got closer and closer, how did Singapore slip out of this arrangement?

Tunku: We got to work very closely with Singapore when we were forming Malaysia. After my press statement, Singapore requested to join us too. So (Lee) Kuan Yew represented Singapore, Halim Fuad, Tuan Stephens, and Tun Mustapha - they all came to work for Malaysia. They were holding meetings and later on it was obvious that Malaysia had to be formed. The British terms were that Singapore could not be on its own but was free to join Malaysia. So Kuan Yew accepted all the terms and it was only after he joined Malaysia that he started to interfere.

K Das: I was going back a bit earlier to 1955/1956 when Malaya was achieving Merdeka. At what point did they become separate, because before the war, we were all under the British and Malaya included Singapore? How was it done - how did Singapore separate? At what year would that be? When the Merdeka talks began, why was Singapore not included?

Tunku: Before Kuan Yew, there was no approach for independence. They were very keen to join but I did not see that in David Marshall and Lim Yew Hock, they had a powerful enough leader to control Singapore.

K Das: There were approaches? Wasn't the PAP (Peoples' Action Party) itself controlled by the communists for a while?

Tunku: That is why the British were not keen to give them independence on their own. So they had to join us or carry on being a colony of Britain. That is why Kuan Yew decided to join us. After that he did everything possible to break away. That is where he has remained today, he is not a man to be trusted.

K Das: But T H Tan was always very suspicious?

Tunku: and (Tan) Siew Sin.

K Das: How about (Tan) Cheng Lock?

Tunku: He was an old man.

K Das: How did he feel about Singapore?

Tunku: He did not express his feelings very well. He was too old then - suffering from senility.

K Das: Leong Yew Koh was also getting old?

Tunku: He was pure Kuomintang so he actually wanted to join us. He was very anti-communist.

K Das: Why did H S Lee leave the Alliance? He left with (Lim) Chong Eu?

Tunku: He left with Chong Eu, so I kicked them all out.

K Das: In your book you mentioned that Chong Eu wanted to leave - he asked for 40 seats. Is that correct?

Tunku: Not 40, it was 32.

K Das: 32?

Tunku: We gave him 29.

K Das: He asked for 32 ... there is a bit of argument over this. Some say he asked for 40.

Tunku: There were only 104 seats. If I had given him anymore, I would have got into trouble.

K Das: They were all Malay seats?

Tunku: So when he decided to break away, I said good luck, get out

K Das: But later on he came back and said he had made a mistake - what was the trouble? Was he having trouble with his young supporters?

Tunku: He was not having trouble. He wanted to have a strong say in the government. I said, "No, you can only have that number of seats, no more." He should have been satisfied with all that. I said, "We can work together for the good of Malaya so long as we can get the country running well." That was all that mattered to us. I was running it very well

Tunku as PM

K Das: In those days, how did you have the time for films, sport.

Tunku: I used to go and train the footballers myself, I rode and did everything. I could never be quiet you know, I didn't know how to do that. Whatever time I had, I rode. You see, with my colleagues, we were working together - I never interfered in their work, they did their own work and then we would discuss all this during every Wednesday cabinet meeting. After that, we would adjourn to lunch. There were some ministers like Aziz Ishak who were out of control. He was minister of agriculture but what he did he never told us, he did on his own.

K Das: What did he do?

Tunku: He was minister of agriculture.

K Das: And what were the things he did?

Tunku: Everything! He was also head of the Co-operative Society. He would use Co-operative money to buy land when the co-operative society was too small and couldn't pay. For instance, the piece of land he bought from Brown Estate for more than a million dollars - in those days it was a lot of money. But he did not get the money to pay and so I had to take it over, paid for it and made a Malay settlement there. That area is called Bayan Baru.

We had to pay for it and so I sold half the land to the Penang state government. Chong Eu bought that and built all those housing estates for his development plan. I had to sell half and then pay the other half. The government of Malaysia paid and settled all these people in Bayan Baru. That is the sort of things he did. Then he went and built a urea plant when he had no money to pay for it and we had to take it over - he started everything well but he never followed up on them.

K Das: Can you recall the circumstances under which Col (H S) Lee left the cabinet?

Tunku: Yes I can recall it very well. The MCA had by that time come under the leadership of Dr Lim Chong Eu and there were all the young Chinese blood who had taken over from Tun Tan Cheng Loke. It was then that H S Lee joined that gang. So these people, the young Chinese, all ambitious, power-mad, power-crazy posed a certain threat to the well-being of the Alliance.

They came after I had taken the decision to give them 29 seats but they said they wanted 32. So I told them I have given you more than enough - 29 seats and half that number is from the Malay constituencies. I cannot do any more than that. The Malays have been very patient with you people but now you are still making demands. You get out. It was during this time that H S Lee got involved with that gang. I do not know what they promised him. So I rang him up and told him to get out.

K Das: So he joined Chong Eu's party?

Tunku: He was not in the MCA.

K Das: So he joined the other side?

Tunku: There was no other side. There was only one MCA. Therefore he was in that.

K Das: So he joined the young faction?

Tunku: They took over the MCA.

K Das: At this time Col H S Lee was the finance minister?

Tunku: He was a senator. Yes, he was minister of finance.

K Das: Then he left?

Tunku: He left. I kicked him out.

K Das: And you appointed Siew Sin (Tan Siew Sin)?

Tunku: That is right. When I kicked him out, this new lot also got out. I then gave up my job and appointed Razak as PM and I went around the country campaigning. In the meantime MCA had a meeting at the Chinese Assembly Hall and appointed their new officers with Siew Sin as its head.

Happiest PM in 1959

K Das: When you went on the campaign in '59?

Tunku: You know I went completely - I retired. I did not go on leave. I resigned. I did not get any pay and I did not have any money. That is why I was selling some of my houses again. When the new MCA was formed, I came back to take over as PM again. Then the election followed - MCA lost their seats. Only Chong Eu won his seat in Penang. All the others lost.

K Das: In your campaign for Umno, what was your main campaign line?

Tunku: To support Umno, take action against MCA. Only if the MCA found new leaders would we support them.

K Das: And before you resigned, you also had some problems with the Malay schoolteachers?

Tunku: Oh, yes!

K Das: What was that about?

Tunku: They wanted better pay, they wanted to be treated on the same scale as the English teachers.

K Das: The same as the graduates?

Tunku: Yes. I said, "You can't, because you are not qualified like the English teachers...Your schooling is only up to a certain point in Malay vernacular schools. If you had gone on to higher levels like Senior Cambridge or what not, I can give you the same pay. But we have already increased your pay from what it was under the British."

So they decided to boycott Umno, they left en masse.

K Das: Was that one of the reasons why you went to campaign?

Tunku: No.

K Das: The main reason was the MCA?

Tunku: Only the MCA. I did not worry about them. They said, "If you campaign, we will also campaign against you people."

So I said, "Carry on, do what you want. It is for the people to decide."

I mean, the country was well served at the time. The economy was good, everything was good, so what was there to be afraid of? The people could not say that business had gone down, that our money had shrunkThe people could not say that because we were having a very good time. So I was not afraid of anybody. If the people were not happy and they wanted to support those parties, those who had shown no particular talent in politics except to talk up to you, let them

K Das: If I remember correctly, 1959 was the year in which you said you were the happiest PM. Can you recall why you were so happy that particular year?

Tunku: In fact I was saying so even before that. You see, we were doing so well.

K Das: Because that happened to be the year you resigned. It was also when you said you were the happiest PM

Tunku: That was the time we broke away from the MCA and so on. I don't know, things were going so well, so many things happened that year.

K Das: But that was a very good year for elections. You won 74 out of 104 seats.


Tomorrow: The Tunku Tapes: Why Brunei backed out - Part 2

The above is an excerpt from The Tunku Tapes - a newly launched book based on the interviews with Malaysia's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman by veteran journalist K Das (photo). The book is edited by social activist Dr Kua Kia Soong and is published by Strategic Info Research Development.