Tokoh Cemerlang

Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussain
Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussain was born on 11th March 1922 in Pekan, Pahang. He was
married to Toh Puan Rahah and they were blessed with four sons. Tun Abdul Razak was
educated at Malay School Langgar, Pekan, Malay College Kuala Kangsar; Raffles
College, Singapore, and Lincoln�s Inn, London. He passed the Bar Final Examinations
in April 1949. He started his career with the Malayan Civil Service in 1949 and was
appointed the State Secretary of Pahang in 1952 and Menteri Besar of Pahang in 1955.

When in England, he was an active member of student bodies. He was the Secretary of
the Malay Society of Britain and later became its President. Tun Abdul Razak had always
taken an active part in politics. He was elected leader of the UMNO Youth Movement, and
became one of its Vice-Presidents, and in 1951 was elected Deputy President of UMNO,
after the formation of the Alliance Party, he was elected its Deputy Chairman.
In April 1954, he joined the Alliance delegation to London. In June 1955, he resigned
from the Government service in order to contest for the Federal Elections. He was
appointed Minister of Education in August 1955 and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister
of Defence in September 1957. He was honoured by His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan
Agong with the order of Seri Maharaja Mangku Negara which carries the title of Tun.
Tun Razak had also been the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He represented Malaysia at
various International Conferences, notably the Tripartite Talks (Malaya, Indonesia and
Philippines) in Manila, Bangkok and Tokyo in 1963 and 1964. He led a goodwill mission to
North Africa in 1964, and East Africa and Burma in 1995. He also represented Malaysia at
various Colombo Plan and other International Economic Development Conferences. He
headed the Malaysia delegation to Bangkok for discussion with the Indonesia Foreign
Minister to Kuala Lumpur, ending the state of Confrontation with Indonesia.
Tun Razak was President of Malaysia�s Olympic Council and President of the 3rd
SEAP Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1965. He was a good sportsman during his college
days, and a keen golf player.
In May 1969, following the General Election and subsequent disturbances of 13th May,
Tun Razak was appointed Director of Operations under Proclamation of Emergency for
22 months until Emergency was lifted and Parliament resumed on 22nd February 1971. In
addition to being Director of Operations, Tun Razak held the portfolios of Deputy Prime
Minister, Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance in the Emergency Cabinet. On 22
September 1970, he took over as Prime Minister upon the retirement of Tunku Abdul
Rahman Putra Alhaj.
He expanded the ruling coalition (Alliance) to include warious opposition

parties. This resulted in the formation of the National Front or Barisan Nasional
which has since enjoyed uninterrupted success at the polls since the first
electoral success at the 1974 General Election. Tun Abdul Razak died in office in
London on 14th January 1976 at the age of 54. His remains were buried at the
Heroes Mausoleum, in the compound of the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.
Tun Hussein Onn

Hussein Onn was born in Johor Bahru on 22nd February 1922. He was the eldest son of
Dato� Onn Jaafar, the Menteri Besar of Johor and first President of UMNO, and Datin
Halimah. He received his early education in Singpore, and later at the English College,
Johor Bahru. He began his career as a cadet Officer in the Johor Military Force. In 1941,
he was sent for military training at the Military Academy in Dehra Dun, India, and was
commissioned in 1942.

He had served in the Middle East and the New Delhi Military college. He was promoted
to the rank of Caption and had served as an Instructor at the Malayan Police Training
Centre at Rawalpindi, India. In August 1945, he returned to Malaya and was appointed
commandant of the Police Depot, Johor Bahru. Later he served in the Malay
Administrative Service and was appointed Aassistant District Officer, Segamat.
When Dato� Onn Jaafar formed UMNO, he resigned from the service to devote his
time fully to UMNO. In 1946, he was appointed as the first Head of the UMNO Youth
Movement, and also as Secretary-General of UMNO. He served as a member of the
Federal Legislative Council. In 1948, he pursued his law upon his return for five years.
In 1970, he contested and won the Parliamentary constituency of Johor Bahru Timur
and was subsequently appointed Minister of Education in the Tun Abdul Razak Cabinet.
In 1972, he was elected as a Vice-President of UMNO. On 13th August 1973, he was
appointed Deputy Prime Minister, succeeding Tun Dr. Ismail who passed away.
After Tun Abdul Razak passed away in London on 14th January 1976, Tun Hussein was
appointed Prime Minister. On account of ill-health, however, he decided to relinquish the
post of Premiership to his deputy, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on 15th July 1981.
Tun Hussein Onn contributed a great deal towards the betterment of the bumiputra
community during his term of office as Prime Minister. The new Economic Policy was
given a fresh impetus under his able direction. He is best remembered for having
introduced a scheme designed to transfer millions of dollars worth of government-owned
shares to a specially modified giant National Unit Trust (Amanah Saham Nasional)
controlled by the National Equity Corporation (Permodalan National Bhd. or PNB). The
Trust allowed bumiputras to invest in the shares. Flushed with funds from the millions of
units sold to bumiputras, the PNB then became the major means by which the
government sought to purchase a controlling interest in other foreign companies.
Although Tun Hussein Onn had retired, he was still very active in other works. On May
1983, he was appointed President of the International Islamic University. On 22nd
February 1983, he was appointed Advisor to Petronas and was appointed Chairman of
the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) on 9th June 1983.
He passed away at the age of 68 on 29th May 1990 at the Seaton Medical Centre, San
Francisco, United States, six weeks after he underwent a coronary by-pass operation. His
remains were buried at the Heroes Mausoleum, in the compound of the National Mosque
in Kuala Lumpur.

Tokoh Cemerlang

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Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussain

He expanded the ruling coalition (Alliance) to include warious opposition

Tun Hussein Onn

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