TRIBUTE ABDUL - Perdana Library

TRIBUTE TO TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN
can make is that official tours, springing from real friendship and
goodwill, generate their own impetus, and are impelled by a kind of
paradox of voluntary compulsion, because both sides wish to give
their best.
The Tunku himself was quite remarkable. Although he was
the constant focus of attention wherever he went, his energy and interest
never flagged. On occasions of dignity and formal honour, he
was the epitome of both. On all occasions, formal or informal, he
showed the human touch, his geniality and good humour came bubbling
through. I might say, to give you an example of the crowded
programme, the Tunku turned to the Protocol Officer on his last evening
in Holland and asked, "What does the Dutch Guilder look
like?" He wanted to go shopping, he wanted to spend some money
and all 1 can say is he managed to do it.
Now for the highlights. First, the city-State of Hamburg.
From the moment the Tunku alighted from the aircraft, meeting
there a familiar face, Dr. Vogel, the Federal Republic's Ambassador
in Kuala Lumpur, until he left 24 hours later, his whole party was
quietly astonished by the public awareness of his presence. People
waited outside the hotel, pointed him out whenever his motor car
appeared, even stopped work on high buildings to wave as he went
by. Everyone seemed to know that the Tunku was in town.
This puzzled me for a while because, although he had a good
Press, this didn't seem to be sufficient reason. Of course, the answer
was television. Nearly all the time he was in Germany ubiquitous
but unobtrusive cameras were flashing his major journeys on T.V.
screens everywhere. The German people were obviously most interested
in the Tunku.
There were three particularly Malayan touches in Hamburg.
The first was a film about Malaya, which pleased our Prime Minister
very much. Made by German technicians in Malaya towards the
end of last year, the Tunku was told it was going to be shown over the
national network the following week. The second was the speech
made by the venerable, spade-bearded President of the South-East
Asia Association (a Hamburg businessman in many fields) who made
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