LETTERS: As we celebrate the 65th anniversary of the birth of our nation, we must always relook and carefully examine in hindsight the contributions made by our founding fathers, which should allow us to re-align at the right bearing for Malaysia to grow as a young nation.
The principles and ethos of this nation that was first moulded by our father of independence, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, should always be ingrained in the minds of our young generation as they must always be brave to take the leadership baton to steer and lead Malaysia forward as a better country.
I'd like to share some of the good tidings and fortunate fate that we Malaysians took for granted by having Tunku as our first prime minister especially during the critical formative years of our young nation.
Tunku's numerous selfless acts and good guidance, led by his good personal nature with which he laid the democratic foundation for Malaysia were some of the good tenets of nation building which guaranteed our success as a free nation.
Tunku was a true gentleman and a great statesman, this was a fact. His upbringing as an aristocrat and his own personal life being exposed to the outside world ever since his teenage years being sent to a boarding school in England, meeting a variety of people helped him develop a sense of a wide perspective for multiracial needs and a strong unity in Malaysia.
Tunku stayed true to the democratic principles of separation of power, and being a nobleman himself (which the Communist precepts despised), managed to guide him to steer our government system in its formative years not only in adopting the basic concept of the Magna Carta which was embedded into our constitution of today, but also in honouring the importance of separation of powers for the three branches of government (the legislative, executive and judiciary).
The hard lesson of Indonesia (1945–1965), the Philippines, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh and African countries that gained their independence but failed to live up to expectations although they possessed vast natural resources.
I know that our constitution was not a perfect document and has been revised over the period of our nationhood, but over time the spirit of the constitution drafted by the Reid Commission 70 years ago had saved this nation from the abusive nature of human weakness and narrow personal understanding on the limits of individual rights and freedom of speech including on sensitive matters such as religious rights and equality of the law for all levels of society.
There was a reason why Tunku was loved and adored by all. His idea of nation building and national stake was espoused by the spirits of inclusivity and equal rights for all.
We were lucky Tunku did not fall into the trap of the quick wealth distribution concept of nationalising all the foreign owned companies in Malaya at that time, which was a very popular move by most of the newly-independent governments, including Indonesia and Egypt, respectively in 1955 and 1956.
Tunku understood wealth and economic build up and remained true to the reward system of the Capitalism concept and a free-market economy which put Malaysia as a favoured investment destination in Southeast Asia in the 1960s. This made Malaysia a competitive nation in its early formative years.
These are some of the challenges of nation building which we took for granted, even to this day, and our success was made possible by Tunku's personal understanding of good governance and his clear vision for the country.
And this is not to mention his brilliant speech for the formation of Malaysia in 1961, which invited for a possible inclusion of Sabah, Sarawak and even Singapore (for a few years) within the Federation of Malaysia. How broad and vast his vision was for our country then.
During his leadership, he gave his own money and wealth to strive for a better nation without asking for anything in return. He was never interested in creating a political dynasty.
This week as we celebrate the 65th anniversary of our independence, we need to return to the spirit and principles that was first set by Tunku for Malaysia. His vision of inclusivity, individual freedom and human rights with clear-cut national goals for a multiracial stake in nation building should be re-embraced for a better Malaysia.
Ahmad Syah Ejaz Ismail
Administrative and Diplomatic Service Officer
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times