TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library

The Making of a Prime Minister
(M. SARAVANAMUTTU)
Cambridge and Penang Days—Independent Spirit of Kedah Royal
Family—The Ozair Incident—Kidnapping of Father—Disillusioned by
Japanese—Reaction to McMichael Treaties—Leaves Home State—
D.P.P. at Kuala Lumpur—President of UMNO—Prime Minister of
Malaya.
I first came to know of Tunku Abdul Rahman from my younger
brother, S. Saravanamuttu, who was with him at the same college at
Cambridge, St. Catherine's. This was in the early 1920's. I had
already come down from Oxford and was in London, playing cricket
for the Indian Gymkhana. When my brother came to London for
the summer vacation in 1921, he told me about his friend, a Malayan
Prince, who, he said, was a very fine fellow and with whom he used to
go to dances. I believe Rahman had a two-seater car and the pair of
them used to play truant and run up to Bedford for the dances there.
At Oxford, I had met his elder brother, the late Sultan Badlishah,
who was at Wadham College and I was introduced to him by a
Ceylonese, Elmar Mack, who was at the same college and who later
passed into the Indian Civil Service.
At Oxford at the same time was His Highness Sultan Ismail of
Johore, who was the first Asian to be admitted to that highly exclusive
institution in those days, Magdalene College.
It will thus be seen that my contact with Malaya dates more
than a decade before my arrival in Penang in 1931.
My first meeting with Tunku Abdul Rahman was when he returned
from England in 1931 and it took place at the Wembley
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