Ismail Abdul Rahman - Death

Death

Eventually, fearing his impending death might keep him from providing for his family, Ismail decided to have his wife's pregnancy terminated. Shortly after, she underwent a tubal ligation. On August 2, Ismail attended the silver jubilee celebrations of the Peninsular Malaysia Malay Students Foundation (Gabungan Pelajar-pelajar Melayu Semenanjung or GPMS). After a sudden explosion sound effect, Ismail's daughter (who was watching the event live on television) noticed he began to sweat profusely. Nevertheless, after he visited his wife, who was recovering from the ligation, at the hospital as had been planned. After having his dinner, Ismail retired to his study. Later, he rang the bell for his maid, asking for his daughter and telling her that "I am going to die, please call my doctor and inform Gopal" (his private secretary). Ismail had suffered a massive heart attack.

Normally, Dr Stewart C. Macpherson, a neighbour of Ismail's and personal doctor to him and Tun Razak, would have immediately attended to Ismail. However, Macpherson had accompanied Razak to the summit, forcing Ismail to phone his other doctor, Dr Catterall, who lived in the satellite town of Petaling Jaya. Upon arrival, Catterall immediately began efforts to resuscitate Ismail, soon being joined by the royal physician, Dr Pillai. Panicked Cabinet members soon arrived, and began discussing the future of politics without Ismail — an incident Ismail's young son found disturbing as Ismail had yet to be declared dead. Catterall laboured for five hours to save Ismail, but to no avail. Ismail's official time of death was later pronounced as 10PM.

Without Ismail, the country was momentarily leaderless, without an acting Prime Minister. Tun Razak ordered that he be laid in state at the Malaysian Houses of Parliament, and be buried at the Makam Pahlawan (Heroes' Mausoleum) near Masjid Negara (National Mosque), Kuala Lumpur. Ismail would be the first to be laid to rest there, and also the first recipient of a Malaysian state funeral. However, Works & Communications Minister Tun Sardon Jubir, the next-most senior Cabinet minister, ordered that Ismail lie in state at the Masjid Negara, and that he be buried just outside the Makam Pahlawan instead. As Ismail's body was transported from his home to the National Mosque, crowds thronged the streets.

Razak was provided with a plane by the Canadian government that took him to Copenhagen, from where he took a commercial flight to Kuala Lumpur. Ismail's burial was postponed until his arrival. Upon arrival, finding that his instructions for Ismail's funeral had not been followed, Razak reportedly exclaimed to Ismail's widow, "Who am I to trust now?" Razak was particularly upset that the lying in state had been held in the National Mosque instead of the Houses of Parliament, as he had intended that non-Muslim Malaysians be able to view the lying in state without discomfort.

Tun Sardon Jubir attempted to justify his instructions by citing a mufti who had informed him that Muslims could not be buried under a roof. The Tunku was exasperated by this explanation, remarking: "My forefathers are all buried in a mausoleum under a roof!" Razak, who would normally have overlooked such incidents, delayed the burial and brought in a detachment of soldiers to tear up the floor of the mausoleum, where Ismail was indeed laid to rest.