The Story Of Tunku Abdul Rahman And His Time In The United Kingdom

On a flight between London Stanstead and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia I came across an interesting article that was very much an insight. The article describes a part of the life of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, after independence from Britain in’57. Tunku Abdul Rahman spent a few years in Britain studying at Cambridge University.

The writer of the article – Mansor Puteh, interviewed the Prime Minister back in’89. He recalls when talking about his time in Cambridge, England there was some emotion shown by the Prime Minster, or as he was better known – “Tunku”. Puteh is actually Tunku Abdul Rahman’s brother in law and thus was able to spend much time in his company.

The article describes how Mansor and his nephew traveled to the UK and followed in the footsteps of Tunku. He first arrived at Stanstead Airport – the airport I left from to travel to Kuala Lumpur – and first went to Grange Road where Tunku had stayed while studying at St Catherine’s in Cambridge.

Strangely as it may seem, Tunku was not encouraged to live on the university campus. He was seen to be “different” than the typical Cambridge University student and did not “seem” to fit in. That was at least until the British advisor to Malaya was invited by the Sultan of Kedah (Tunku’s father) to relate to the Dean of the university that Tunku was in actual fact a Prince in Malaysia.

The British advisor to Malaya was summonsed by the Sultan of Kedah so that he may explain to the Dean of the university that Tunku was a prince in Malaya. The Dean was totally shocked and exclaimed “why did you not say to me this before!”. Tunku was then offered a room on campus but he gracefully declined as he had grown accustomed to living elsewhere by then.

Tunku died in’90 at the fine old age of 87. The author of this particular article, Mansor Puteh, is not only well known as a writer but also as a film maker. He is now working on a film titled “Malaysian Snow” which is based upon a group of Malaysian students currently living life and studying in Britain. The full article can be found in the “Travel 3 Sixty” magazine.

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