When my good friend, Tawfik, called me a month ago and asked me to write an article in honor of his father, I, of course, said yes without hesitation.

The problem was, I did not know his father, Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman at all. Then, why did I say yes?

Well, Tawfik is one of the few persons that I would never say “no” to. For weeks after that, I brooded on how to write something I do not know much about… Tun Dr. Ismail.

You see, I know Hadi Awang. I have heard more than a hundred cassettes of his Tafsir Al-Qur’an expounding his social, political and spiritual views of Islam. In the days of Reformasi, I added more CDs to that list.

I also know Tun M because I love reading his books. I also never miss his speeches in Umno conventions even though I hated the man for many years during the Reformasi.

However, I supported Zaid Ibrahim when the idea of working with the man was mooted.

I never trusted Tun M, but I still love reading his books.

I also know Anwar. No, I have never had a conversation with him, but I lived the Reformasi for 23 years until the day he took office as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

But…I have zero knowledge of Tun Dr. Ismail!

Just as I was about to call Tawfik and tell him my first “no,” my editor from Sin Chew called to ask me to write the same topic.

Aiyaa…I thought, this must be fated. So, I turned on the computer and suddenly a speech came to my attention, a speech given by a man named Abdullah Ahmad.

I asked Tawfik who this guy could be, and he said he was confident it was Dolah Kok Lanas.

I said.. huh? Who? I know most of my “enemies” in Umno, but not this one.

Nevertheless, the speech was so well written with heart and professionalism that it gripped my mind and soul as any good writing does.

I thought why don’t I use this guy’s honest thought and sentiments and make commentaries about what is happening today?

In this way, I would get a three-view article with Tun Dr. Ismail’s 1969 tragedy, Abdullah Ahmad’s 2002 Malaysia politics (the speech was published in 2002 in NST, and I got it from the Perdana Leadership website, so…thanks Tun M!), and my take of what is happening today and the last decade.

Sweet! Problem solved, and let the fingers fly over the keyboard!

I would like to emphasize the speech that related to the events of May 13 and the issues of race relations…what else-lah!

In Malaysia, race and religion will, I believe, kill us all in more ways than one. Thus, in the words of Abdullah Ahmad:

In the 1969 elections, and what came after, lies the junction between the life and times of Tun Dr Ismail, and our own… The country’s first generation of leaders, in their attention to economic development in search of the Good Life, had benignly neglected those who weren’t sharing it. After the riots of May 13, 1969, it fell to Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail to draw the map home for a lost and wounded nation. The roadmap they drew was called the New Economic Policy. This country of ours is rooted in the remains of theirs.

What Tun Razak and Tun Dr Ismail set in motion is what is Malaysia today. In a way, this is not what they imagined, but what they were. They were educated and globally aware, with a universal and inclusive worldview.

Let us all “renung” carefully these two paragraphs. The first was about the May 13 riots that left an indelible scar on the nation and the other was the formation of the New Economic Policy.

I was only seven years old and don’t know much about May 13 except that there was a curfew and that my father, who was a policeman, always came home with a Sten machine gun.

Before that, I only saw his pistol that he kept in a high drawer.

I also remembered being housed in a Chinese man’s bungalow and I always wondered why. I guess it must have been because of the fear that the police stations and barracks might be attacked.

As for Dasar Ekonomi Baru, I am proud to say that I am a “successful” product of that policy. A policy created by Umno, MCA and MIC with leaders that saw the importance of producing new citizens with a global view and a country with a balanced socioeconomic engineering.

After Tun Dr. Ismail, Umno, MCA and MIC were rife with leaders that put the wealth of their children and themselves first, second and last.

In the next part of the speech, I have taken this excerpt for renungan or reflection:

Dr Ismail’s lifelong multi-racialism was born with him in Johor Baru in 1915, when Singapore was the island off his home beach. Already unhappy with the Singapore separation, Dr Ismail resigned from Tengku’s Government, and stayed out until that weekend in May 1969. Volunteering to return to the Government under Tun Razak, Tun Dr Ismail is still remembered for his address to the nation over radio and television on May 14, which he began sternly and unequivocally, with the three words: `Democracy is dead’.

Startling even now, on that frightful morning they shook the nation sober. Yes, democracy was dead see how it had nearly killed everything we cherished. See how democracy had been used to express the worst of our natures. But now democracy was dead, and the country under Emergency Powers and Rules would shut up and do as it was told by the Mageran – Majlis Gerakan Nasional or National Operations Council – until it was back on track and in order. Dr Ismail’s message remains an essential truth for this nation, to be forgotten at our mortal peril. Accept multi-culturalism as an unbreakable social contract, or democracy may die again.

These three harrowing paragraphs must be etched in the hearts of all Malaysians.

“Democracy is Dead.” The May 13 riot was sparked, many believe, by political “freedom of speech” without wisdom, without rationale and without remorse. Freedom to speak without adab and conscience.

Well, now we have the internet with YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Instant powder keg.

I agree with Anwar that 3Rs must be monitored carefully and freedom of speech must be tampered with sensitivity or else shut down sternly and severely. No two ways about it.

We now have Islam being used to fan racial hatred and religious “jihad” with a certain group parading with fake spears and swords.

Secondly, “Democracy is Dead” …again when Mahiaddin, Azmin and Hamzah Zainudin implored the YDP Agong to declare an Emergency.

The Agong reluctantly agreed but sternly reminded the PM then to debate it in Parliament.

The PM, Mahiaddin, ignored the YDP Agong and used that time to secure himself and his party which had already lost its majority.

I have never forgiven these three people, Bersatu, PAS and the ministers in Umno then for this treacherous act of cowardice, opportunism and indifference to the dignity of the rakyat.

These people are lucky that I am not the Prime Minister. If I were, these people would I have stripped of becoming the honored and dignified citizens of Malaysia.

In the next few paragraphs, a message for a new Umno in the Unity Government:

Tun Dr Ismail was a mentor to the `Young Turks’ of Umno in the Sixties, who would be associated with the leadership of the Barisan Nasional as much as he and Tun Razak were with the Alliance. Looking up from the wreckage of Malaysia’s race relations, they saw that recreating this country called for looking to the younger generation for those with the Right Stuff to do the Right Thing, and see their fellow citizens through to a more equitable, peaceful and prosperous Malaysia.

Insofar as Malaysia today matches what they wanted, they and we have succeeded. But where the Malaysian model does not work, where chauvinism, extremism and intolerance prevail in our society, as much as where there remain hardship and poverty, we have failed them

There are things about us today that Tun Dr Ismail would not have liked. He would have been dismayed by families divided by religion; by brothers fighting one another. He had kept extremism at bay, and embodied the philosophy of moderation spelled out in the Rukunegara. One thing I know is that he would have been intolerant of religious bigotry, language fascists and racial fanatics.

In these three paragraphs, I dedicate them to the new Umno in the Unity Government where Tun Dr. Ismail looked to the new faces of Umno to rule Malaysia beyond the ideology of race and religion but to a progressive mind and an open heart to all cultures and faiths.

But listening to the Ketua Pemuda demanding apologies from Malaysians left and right, I think Umno may not grow much.

I have hope that the defeat would taste bitter and a resolve would be made to rejuvenate the Umno that all Malaysians trusted in the spirit of Tun Dr. Ismail and Tun Abdul Razak plus a Madani perspective of Islam against the venom of Hadi Awang’s Taliban version of Islam.

In the final paragraph of the speech, Abdullah Ahmad closed by these words…

Frankly, that we’ve survived at all is already a success. That we’ve done so in relative peace, security and prosperity is almost miraculous. But miracles are the work of God Almighty, whereas what we call our country today was the work (with God’s help, no doubt) of men like Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman. He is one of the few leaders I miss. I enjoyed working with him and for him. He and Tun Razak were two Malay leaders taken away from us at their peak – and when we needed them most.

We hope for leaders, Malay or others, who would carry the spirit of Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr. Ismail. Leaders who work independent of mere popularity and gung ho kurang ajar attitude like a certain chief minister of Kedah.

We hope for leaders who really walk their talk in progress and civility, unlike some of those who sit and talk in podcasts forgetting what they did when they were in power.

We hope for leaders who put the genie of religion back into its bottle and deny any political party to use religion as an ideology that would manufacture a religious hatred and war.

We hope for a spirit of honesty in performance, integrity in trust and above all according dignity to all Malaysians, all of us, of all faiths, of all cultures and of all strengths and weaknesses.

With these new leaders, we Malaysians pledge to work with them with our strengths, our dreams and our prayers for our country that we call our own.

May Allah bless the roh and spirit of my friend’s father, Tun Dr. Ismail bin Abdul Rahman. Al-Fatiha…

Reference

The Legacy of Tun Dr. Ismail (NST 25/12/2002) by Abdullah Ahmad, from archive of Perdana Leadership Foundation.

In memory of Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman:

1. Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi: In the shadow of a true Malaysian… Tun Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman in memoriam
2. Mohsin Abdullah: The man who saved Malaysia
3. Ooi Kee Beng: Tun Dr. Ismail — respected and feared for the right reasons
4. Malaysia needs more ‘color blind’ leaders: Tawfik
5. Not just Tanah Melayu

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)