Ismail bin Abdul Rahman (; 4 November 1915 – 2 August 1973) was a Malaysian politician who served as the second Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia from September 1970 to his death in August 1973. A member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), he previously held several ministerial posts.
Ismail has been called "the man who saved Malaysia" for his actions as Minister of Home Affairs after the 13 May incident of racial rioting in 1969.
Early life Ismail was born on 4 November 1915 in Johor Bahru, Johor. He was the son of Abdul Rahman Mohamed Yassin, who was of Buginese descent.Thajunnisa (2004), p. 4 Abdul Rahman was the first President of the Dewan Negara (Senate) of the Parliament of Malaysia, and also the first chairman of Malayan Banking.Ooi, Kee Beng (18 January 2007). The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time , pp. E2–E3, E8. The Sun. His maternal grandfather was Abu Bakar Abdullah, an ethnic Chinese convert to Islam and former State Treasurer of Johor. After Ismail's mother, Zaharah Abu Bakar, Abdul Rahman's wife, died in 1936, Abdul Rahman remarried Kamariah, the sister of Onn Ja'afar, the Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johor. The remarriage was encouraged by Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, who sought to unite the Johor aristocracy by blood. Abdul Rahman himself almost became Menteri Besar according to Ismail, but failed because he "refused to indulge in intrigues".
Education Ismail was raised by his maternal grandmother due to his mother's various illnesses and received his primary education at Sekolah Bukit Zaharah, although his education was interrupted by frequent trips to see distant relatives. Ismail's initial friends were predominantly Malay, but when he continued his education at the English College Johore Bahru, Ismail gravitated to non-Malays due to his interest in the opposite sex – Chinese girls often being given more freedom to mingle than their Malay counterparts in those days. Ismail later said: "I am convinced that this early mingling with the other races during the most impressionable stage of my life had a lot to do with my non-racial outlook." Ismail forged close friendships with the daughters of Cheah Tiang Earn, a friend of his father's. Eileen and Joyce Chuah would later both marry into the influential Kuok family, which Ismail got to know through them. Ismail also befriended the children of Joseph Chako Puthucheary, who would later become important players in Malaysian and Singaporean politics.
Ismail's father believed strongly in the benefits of education, unlike many Malays of the time, and ensured his children received the best education possible. Two of his sons became lawyers and another an economist. In 1939, the British General Adviser W.E. Pepys lamented that "the only Johore Malay who has got a university degree is Inche (Mr.) Suleiman bin Abdul Rahman, the son of Dato Abdul Rahman, State Treasurer, Johore." Ismail himself went on to obtain a degree at the King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore. In 1945, he became the first Malay to obtain an MBBS from University of Melbourne, Australia. Ismail's son later said that his education in Australia greatly impacted his worldview: "He was on his own and a member of a minority there. He didn’t have other Malays to prop him up and he had a sense of loneliness. He felt that he was treated as an equal and that this was the way he would want to treat other people as well."Sunday Interview: Secrets and all – A son shares a legacy . (7 January 2007). Malaysia Today.
Early career In 1946, the British formed the Malayan Union, a polity seen as infringing on the special position of the Malays and the Malay Rulers. Ismail's family was heavily involved in the anti-Malayan Union campaign led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). After the successful campaign led to the replacement of the Malayan Union with the Federation of Malaya, Ismail was appointed to the Johor State Legislative Assembly by Dato' Onn Jaafar, the Chief Minister of Johor. Ismail was also offered a seat on the Federal Legislative Council by Onn, but on the condition that Ismail join UMNO. Ismail refused, insisting that he would only join UMNO if it committed itself to fighting for Malayan independence."Malayan Union brings Ismail to the crossroads", pp. 10–12. (1 January 2007). New Straits Times. In the Johor state legislative assembly, his very first action was to declare his opposition to the UMNO-supported federation, which he considered in contravention of the Johor state constitution.
Ismail focused on his private practice, founding the Tawakkal (Trust in God) Clinic which he ran from 1947 to 1953. During this period, Ismail co-founded the Malay Graduates' Association, a political discussion group for intellectuals. Ismail observed:
Marriage and personal life In 1950, Ismail married Norashikin Mohd Seth (nicknamed Neno) in an arranged marriage. On passing through Kuala Lumpur on the way to their honeymoon in Penang, they met Tunku Abdul Rahman, who would later succeed Onn Jaafar as President of UMNO. Ismail later recounted that the Tunku had invited him and his new bride to the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club to dance, but upon finding that they were newlyweds "bundled us off telling us that we had no business being on the dance floor so late when we should be in bed enjoying our honeymoon." The Tunku later cited the support of Ismail and the Malay Graduates Association as the major impetus for his decision to become president, while Ismail in turn claimed he decided to join UMNO only after the Tunku became president in 1951.
Ismail would have six children with Neno: Tawfik (born 1951), Zailah (1953–2017), Badariah (born 1959), Tarmizi (born 1961), Zamakhshari (born 1963) and Ariff (born 1965).
Before Independence
Ismail entered Malaysian politics in 1951 when he was elected as vice-president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). He had earlier been the nominee of the Malay Graduates Association to the UMNO Central Executive Committee. Initially, Ismail and his brother Suleiman, also an UMNO member, mainly clashed with Dato Onn, who had left UMNO to form the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) after UMNO refused to open membership to non-Malays. Ismail was very critical of Onn, who had made "very inflammatory communal speeches attacking the Chinese". Suleiman later defeated Onn in the first Malayan general election, and was lauded as a "giant-killer" for his landslide victory against Onn, who had been the favourite.
Ismail was also instrumental in gaining a greater amount of autonomy for the local government, when in 1954 the Alliance government (a coalition of UMNO and the Malayan Chinese Association or MCA) decided to boycott the British-backed local elections. When the British High Commissioner Donald MacGillivray met with the Tunku, Ismail, and the MCA's representative of H. S. Lee, he accused them of playing into the hands of the Malayan Communist Party, which was waging an armed insurgency against the British. The source of the dispute was that the British High Commissioner had been given the discretion to nominate six seats, in addition to those contested in the elections. Ismail proposed a compromise: the Alliance would support the elections, but only if the High Commissioner would consult with the party that won the elections before making his appointments. MacGillivray initially refused, but after finding public opinion against him, backed down.
Later, Ismail was part of the Malayan government delegation sent to London to negotiate terms for independence from the British. In the Federal Legislative Council, he was also a strong proponent of the controversial Razak Report. Outside the council, many Chinese were upset about the lack of provisions for vernacular education, while within the council, Malay members from UMNO condemned the Report for not making Malay the sole medium of instruction. Ismail accused the report's opponents in the Council of making "no considerations for the Chinese and Indians who are already in this country", and acting in an imperialistic manner. If the non-Malays accepted Malaya's status as a Malay country and that the national language was Malay, he argued, there was no reason to further suppress them. The Razak Report eventually became law, when the Council approved it as the Education Ordinance of 1957.
Ismail analysed the Malay distrust of the Chinese as such:
In Ismail's view, it was imperative that "if the Chinese – the real political problem since the other races were not dominant – were to be persuaded into accepting Malay as the national language, they should be granted citizenship as a quid pro quo" – an early expression of what would later be referred to as the Malaysian social contract.
Independent Malaya After independence in 1957, Ismail was appointed as Malaya and Malaysia's first ambassador to the United States of America, as well as the United Nations – two posts to be held concurrently by him from 1957 till 1959. When Ismail led the independent Malayan delegation to the General Assembly, he carried the traditional Malay dagger (kris) – according to him, the first time a weapon of any kind had been brought into the assembly. At the UN, Ismail developed a strongly held view that Malayan foreign policy had to keep "an independent line, by which I mean that our stand on international problems should not be influenced by the policies of other countries, big or small"."Ismail's struggle to form Malaysia and Asean", pp. 12–13. (2 January 2007). New Straits Times. While serving in the United States and at the United Nations, Ismail wrote personal notes to the Prime Minister, which were recently compiled and published in a book titled "Malaya's First Year at the UN". Ismail remained involved in local politics, however, and pressed for the Alliance coalition of UMNO, the MCA and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) to merge into one multi-racial party, instead of remaining as a coalition comprising three mono-racial parties."The inevitability of separation", pp. 12–14. (3 January 2007). New Straits Times.
Upon returning to Malaya in 1959, he was appointed as external affairs minister. The following year, a controversy arose when the Tunku stated that Malaya would eventually have to recognise the communist People's Republic of China. This was, in the Tunku's words, "a sudden change in our policy towards Communist China" that had been influenced by private talks between the Tunku and French President Charles de Gaulle. Ismail was outraged by this decision, which had been taken without consultation with him, and directly contradicted Ismail's stated policy of refusing to recognise the People's Republic of China as long as they backed the Malayan Communist Party, which had waged an armed insurgency against the government. Ismail threatened to resign, and apparently attempted to do so on four separate occasions. The situation was defused by the Tunku refusing to see Ismail, who eventually calmed down and put the incident behind him, behaving "as if nothing had happened."
Ismail was later persuaded by his brothers not to quit, but to instead transfer to a different ministry. He was then made the new internal security minister, a post which had been specifically created for him. In 1962, he was appointed to the portfolio of home affairs as well. In these roles, Ismail was in charge of detaining people under the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA), which permits detention without trial. After resigning in 1967, Ismail expressed amazement that he was not "the most hated man in Malaya" for his actions. Although many were critical of the ISA, Ismail believed it was necessary for public order, stating that "Abuse of the Act can be prevented by vigilant public opinion via elections, a free Press and above all the Parliament."
Malaysia