Tuanku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj

by Ezzat Amier

      Tunku Abdul Rahman was born on 8 February 1903, in Alor Setar, Kedah, the seventh son of Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah, the twenty-fifth ruler of the Kedah Sultanate. Tunku's mother was Che Manjalara, the fourth wife of Sultan Abdul Hamid. At that time, cholera and malaria were very common all over Kedah and at least two of Tunku's brothers and his older sister died from cholera while Tunku himself suffered from intermittent attacks of malaria until he left for London in 1920. 

 Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim Shah  was a Malaysian politician who served as the first Chief Minister of theFederation of Malaya from 1955 to 1957, before becoming Malaya's first Prime Minister after independence in 1957, remaining Prime Minister following the formation of Malaysia in 1963, when Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore joined the federation, until his retirement in 1970. Commonly known simply as "Tunku" or "The Tunku" (a Malay royal title), Tunku Abdul Rahman is widely regarded, even by his critics, as Malaysia's founding father, the architect of Malayan independence and the formation of Malaysia. As such, he is often referred to as Bapa Kemerdekaan (Father of Independence) or Bapa Malaysia (Father of Malaysia)