4 days to go for us malaysian to celebrate our 50th merdeka celebration.
FOR our Bapa Kemerdekaan, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, CH (February 8, 1903 – December 6, 1990), we thank you for all that you have done for us and here it is some info on Tunku sempena menjelangnya 50 tahun kemerdekaan negara kita.
Born in Istana Pelamin, Alor Star, Kedah, Abdul Rahman was the fourteenth son and twentieth child of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, the twenty-fourth Sultan of Kedah. His mother, Cik Menjalara, was a daughter of Luang Naraborirak (Kleb), a Thai district officer during the reign of King Rama V of Thailand.
Abdul Rahman began his education in 1909 at a Malay Primary School, Jalan Baharu, in Alor Star and was later transferred to the Government English School, now the Sultan Abdul Hamid College, Alor Star, where he studied during the day and read the Qur'an in the afternoon. Two years later, when he was eight, he was sent to study at Debsirin School in Bangkok along with his three brothers. In 1915, he returned and continued his studies at Penang Free School.
In 1918, Abdul Rahman was awarded a Kedah State Scholarship to further his studies at St Catharine's College in the University of Cambridge, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925. He was the first student from Kedah to study in the United Kingdom under the sponsorship of the Kedah State Government.
Upon his return home, Abdul Rahman worked in the Kedah public service and was appointed as District Officer of Kulim and Sungai Petani. Some time later he returned to England to complete his law studies at the Inner Temple, but was forced to stop in 1938 and, on the outbreak of World War II, he returned to Malaya. He resumed his studies at the Inner Temple in 1947 and, in 1949, he qualified for the Bar.
During this period Abdul Rahman met Abdul Razak Hussein (later known as Datuk and Tun). He was elected president of the Malay Society of Great Britain, and Abdul Razak, who was twenty-six, was his secretary.
In 1954 Abdul Rahman led a delegation to London to seek independence for Malaya, but the trip proved to be unfruitful. In the following year, the first federal general election was held, and the Alliance Party (Perikatan), a coalition of UMNO, the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) won fifty-one out of the fifty-two seats contested. Abdul Rahman was elected as Malaya's first Chief Minister. The Alliance was later joined by the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) in 1955, representing the Indian community.
Tunku Abdul Rahman proclaiming Malayan independence.Later in 1955 Abdul Rahman made another trip to London to negotiate Malayan independence, and 31 August 1957 was decided as the date for independence. When the British flag was lowered in Kuala Lumpur on independence day, Abdul Rahman led the crowd in announcing "Merdeka!" (freedom!). Photographs of Abdul Rahman raising his hand, and recordings of his emotional but determined voice leading the cheers, have become familiar icons of Malaysian independence.
In 1977, having acquired substantial shares in The Star, a Penang-based newspaper, Abdul Rahman became the newspaper's Chairman. His columns, "Looking Back" and "As I See It", were critical of the government, and in 1987 Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad banned the newspaper. This led to a split in UMNO, with Abdul Rahman and another former Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, setting up a new party called UMNO Malaysia, but its registration was quashed by Mahathir Mohamad, who set up his own UMNO Baru ("New UMNO"). Abdul Rahman later supported Semangat 46, a splinter group of UMNO led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. He campaigned actively for the latter in the General election of 1990, but was already in very poor health.
In his later years, Abdul Rahman lived in his house in Penang. The Tunku died on 6 December 1990 at the age of eighty-seven, and was laid to rest at the Langgar Royal Mausoleum in Alor Star.
MERDEKA MERDEKA MERDEKA!!!!!!!!!!!
