FACULTY IN COMPUTER AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE

CS240
BACHELOR IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

MGT 400 - INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
LEADER’S NAME: TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN

STUDENT’S NAME NUR ALIEYA SYAFIQA BINTI AHZAINIZAM

STUDENT ID 2021826566

GROUP D1CS2401A

LECTURER’S NAME HADHIFAH FADHLINA BINTI ISMAIL

SUBMISSION DATE 28 NOVEMBER 2021

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1. Introduction
Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj ibni Almarhum Sultan Abdul Hamid Halim
Shah or simply called Tunku Abdul Rahman was the first prime minister of Malaysia
since 1957 which is the year of independence and also the head of government of its
predecessor states from 1955 until 1970. He was a very well-known Malaysian leader
because he had contributed a lot in this country and made big changes to Malaysia. Other
than that, he also played an important role as the Chief Minister of the Federation of
Malaya in 1955 until 1957. In 1963, he created the greatest achievement for himself
which is the formation of Malaysia where he successfully consolidated the countries of
Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak under one umbrella. Right after 20 years leaving
the title ‘Prime Minister’, he passed away on 6 December 1990 because he had heart and
kidney problems. His leadership style should be followed by the new leaders out there.
All of the communities in Malaysia and future generations are supposed to give high
appreciation and remember his good services towards this country as a man, a statesman,
defender of Malays and as a national leader.

2. Early life
On 8 February 1903, Tunku Abdul Rahman was born at Istana Pelamin Palace in
Alor Setar, Kedah. He was the seventh son and the twentieth child of Sultan Abdul
Hamid Halim Shah and Che Manjalara who was the Sultan’s sixth wife. Tunku’s mother
was the daughter of Luang Naraborirak ( Kleb Nandanagara ) who was a district officer
in Thailand.

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3. Education
Tunku Abdul Rahman has started his early education at the Alor Setar Malay
Primary School and he furthered his study in government English secondary school
called Sultan Abdul Hamid College. In 1911, Tunku Abdul Rahman’s parents sent him
together with his three brothers to Debsirin School in Bangkok, Thailand for a few years.
Then, Tunku Abdul Rahman returned back home to continue his studies at Penang Free
School in 1915. After graduating from his secondary school, he won the Kedah State
Government scholarship and because of it he got the chance to further his studies in St
Catharine’s College which is located at Cambridge, England. At the Cambridge college,
he got a well-experienced tutor, Basil Atkinson to teach and prepared him for university
entrance examination. The following year, Tunku took the exams and he passed the
exams very well. With that, he got accepted to be an undergraduate at St Catharine’s
College. Finally, in 1925, he graduated with a Bachelor's degree of Arts in Law and
History. In May 1930, he sat for the Bar examination and managed to pass three papers
but failed in one paper thus he failed the whole examination in part one.

4. Career
Tunku Abdul Rahman started his career in Kedah after graduating from St
Catharine’s College. In 1931, Tunku Abdul Rahman became a Cadet in the Kedah Civil
Service. After that, he was transferred to Kulim to be Assistant District Officer. As he
became Assistant District Officer, he was frequently touring the district and got to know
the problems of the peasants in Kulim. He also spent his time preparing for Cadet’s Law
examination to qualify for promotion. Surprisingly, he passed the examination. Since he
passed the Cadet’s Law examination, he was promoted to become District Officer but in a
different district which is Padang Terap. His career in this place was not really popular
because at that time Kuala Nerang was rife with malaria. As he took over the district, he
started to create orders for a survey to be made of the swamps which bordered the town.
In 1934, he had some issues in his marriage with the regent. Thus, he was transferred to

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 the isolated post of District Officer in Langkawi by the Secretary of the government. At
that time, Langkawi was poorly developed and Tunku applied for funds from the
government but got rejected. However, Tunku was a genius and had a good connection
with the communities in Langkawi. Therefore, he cooperated with all members of the
communities to make some changes to the jetty and opened several roads by using the
funds that he collected by himself. As for his political career, in 1949, Tunku worked in
the office of Legal Officer in Alor Setar and then he transferred to Kuala Lumpur and
became Deputy Public Prosecutor. He was also appointed to be the President of The
Section Court. In 1951, there was a political crisis in UMNO where Datuk Onn Jaafar
who was the President of UMNO resigned and Tunku was appointed to be the new
president in UMNO. Tunku held the position for 20 years. The biggest position he held
was the Prime Minister from 1957 until 1970.

5. Personal life
Tunku Abdul Rahman has been married four times. His first wife was named
Meriam Chong who was a Thai Chinese woman that he met in Kedah. From that
marriage, they were blessed with two children, Tunku Khadijah, his first born and Tunku
Ahmad Nerang was the second. After Meriam gave birth to her second child, she suffered
from severe malaria and then she died. After the death of his first wife, he married
another woman named Violet Coulsen who is a landlady in England. After a few years,
Tunku divorced her as he had a lot of responsibilities in public service and had been
forced to separate with his wife. He then married Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah
and they adopted four children. Lastly, he married a Chinese woman, Bibi Chong but he
kept his marriage secret.

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6. Awards and recognition

● Father of Independence
Tunku Abdul Rahman was the one who set up for the independence of
Malaya. In 1954, he led the group of representatives to London to get the approval
about Malaya independence but failed to get the approval. However, in 1955, H
went back to London to negotiate about Malaya Independence. But this time he
managed to get the approval and the date of Malaya independence was decided on
31 August 1957. Tunku was also the person who declared the Malaya
Independence in Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur. These were the reasons he got
the title of ‘Father of Independence’.

● Father of Malaysia
Tunku Abdul Rahman was the one who voiced the idea of “Gagasan
Malaysia’ which includes Tanah Melayu, Sabah, Sarawak, Singapura dan Brunei.
After going through a very hard process, Tunku’s idea became reality after he
received an agreement from the representatives of the British, Federation of
Malaya , Singapore, Sabah and sarawak. Thus, the formation of Malaysia was
finally declared on 16 September 1963.

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7. Leadership personality

● Intelligence
Tunku Abdul Rahman was very intelligent in handling some problems that
came during his career. When he was a District Officer in Langkawi years ago, he
had applied fundings from the State Government to repair and improve everything
in Langkawi to create a better environment. However, his application was
rejected. Therefore, he collected another fund by himself to make changes to the
jetty in Langkawi and opened more paths in Langkawi.

● Task-oriented
Tunku Abdul Rahman was very clear in setting his goals and priorities for
his work. He was very clear of his goals to form an Independent Malaya. It can be
seen when he was the one who led an entourage to London for negotiations until
independence was given to Tanah Melayu.

● Tolerance
This characteristic can be seen in Tunku Abdul Rahman when he
negotiated wisely with Philippines and Indonesia’s leaders to resolve their conflict
during the process of Malaysia’s formation.

● Hard-working
During Tunku Abdul Rahman’s career, he was always hard-working and
never gave up to overcome the obstacles that happened in his career. From his
career after leaving university until in political career, he met a lot of challenges
and obstacles in his works but he neger gave up and make it happened as what we
can see from the proces of Malaya’s Independence.

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REFERENCES
1. History of Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Malaysia#Challenges_of_independence

2. Tunku Abdul Rahman. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman

3. Biography.com Editors. (2014, April 2). Tunku Abdul Rahman. Biography.

https://www.biography.com/political-figure/tunku-abdul-rahman

4. Federation of Malaysia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2021, from

https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2019-07-15_170844.html

5. Tunku Abdul Rahman Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2021, from
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/tunku-abdul-rahman-93.php

6. Case, W. (1991). Comparative Malaysian Leadership: Tunku Abdul Rahman and

Mahathir Mohamad. Asian Survey, 31(5), 456–473.