The 1960 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

CITATION for Tunku Abdul Rahman

Ramon Magsaysay Award Presentation Ceremonies
31 August 1960, Manila, Philippines

Leadership was suddenly thrust upon TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN in 1951 at the age of 48. Assuming a task no prominent politician wanted, he became president of the United Malays National Organization when it verged on fragmenting over extension of equal membership rights to all races. Close friends had sensed his political acumen and observed the ability to find common ground regardless of color or calling that would make this son of a Sultan of Kedah a nation-builder and, in six years, Bapa Merdeka, or Father of Malayan Independence.

Malaya's progress toward nationhood then was mired in divisive factionalism. Eleven states, some feudal and others modern, held Southeast Asia's least homogenous mixture of races, religions, languages and cultural groups. Roughly 50 per cent Malays, 37 per cent Chinese, 11 per cent Indian, Pakistani and Ceylonese and the remainder miscellaneous minorities, each community in itself was a composite, with Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus speaking different dialects and holding to their ancestral customs. Most at odds were the Malays, sometimes arrogantly possessive of their birthright, and Chinese, with superior economic and educational resources they could use for gaining political control. A communist-led insurrection compounded these differences.

ABDUL RAHMAN and other foresighted leaders determined to avoid violent upheavals comparable to Indonesia's war of independence and the communal strife following India's partition. They resolved that independence must be achieved by constitutional means, agreed on the absolute necessity for interracial cooperation and chose to promote a new "Malayan" citizenship.

The TUNKU'S personal message was one of sincerity, generosity and firm common sense. Meeting supporters and adversaries alike in a forthright manner that was highly persuasive, he first clarified the issues and re-formed the UMNO. He then forged an Alliance with the Malayan Chinese Association and the Malayan Indian Congress, which won a sweeping victory at the polls in 1955. The nine hereditary rulers next were convinced they could retain their rights and privileges with independence. These evidences of political viability induced Great Britain to grant independence on August 31, 1957, and TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN became Malaya's first Prime Minister.

Re-elected in 1959, he announced that his chief purpose for the next five years would be cementing national unity. In two election campaigns, moving from city to kampong throughout the country, he has pleaded, persuaded and sold his idea of communal harmony. Keenly conscious of his people's needs, he has made rural development a major function of a Government notable for its integrity. Though some guerrillas remain in the jungle, independence, a flourishing economy with one of the highest per capita incomes in Asia and communal cooperation have curbed rebel appeal, and, in July 1960, the Emergency declared 12 years earlier was officially ended.

In electing His Excellency, TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN PUTRA AL-HAJ, Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaya, to the 1960 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, the Board of Trustees recognizes his guidance of a multiracial society through its constitutional struggle for independence, toward communal alliance and national identity. Emerging as a symbol of racial accord, the TUNKU has brought the communities of Malaya into a working partnership based on mutual rights and responsibilities and fostered an understanding—rare in newly independent nations—that the future is best insured with tolerance and goodwill among one's fellowmen.