Abdul Razak Hussein

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.

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