Independent Malaya
After independence in 1957, Ismail was appointed as Malaya and Malaysia's first ambassador to the United States of America, as well as the United Nations — two posts to be held concurrently by him from 1957 till 1959. When Ismail led the independent Malayan delegation to the General Assembly, he carried the traditional Malay dagger (kris) — according to him, the first time a weapon of any kind had been brought into the assembly. At the UN, Ismail developed a strongly held view that Malayan foreign policy had to keep "an independent line, by which I mean that our stand on international problems should not be influenced by the policies of other countries, big or small". While serving in the United States and at the United Nations, Ismail wrote personal notes to the Prime Minister, which were recently compiled and published in a book titled "Malaya's First Year At The UN". Ismail remained involved in local politics, however, and pressed for the Alliance coalition of UMNO, the MCA and the Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) to merge into one multi-racial party, instead of remaining as a coalition comprising three mono-racial parties.
Upon returning to Malaya in 1959, he was appointed as external affairs minister. The following year, a controversy arose when the Tunku stated that Malaya would eventually have to recognise the communist People's Republic of China. This was, in the Tunku's words, "a sudden change in our policy towards Communist China" that had been influenced by private talks between the Tunku and French President Charles de Gaulle. Ismail was outraged by this decision, which had been taken without consultation with him, and directly contradicted Ismail's stated policy of refusing to recognise the People's Republic of China as long as they backed the Malayan Communist Party, which had waged an armed insurgency against the government. Ismail threatened to resign, and apparently attempted to do so on four separate occasions. The situation was defused by the Tunku refusing to see Ismail, who eventually calmed down and put the incident behind him, behaving "as if nothing had happened."
Ismail was later persuaded by his brothers not to quit, but to instead transfer to a different ministry. He was then made the new internal security minister, a post which had been specifically created for him. In 1962, he was appointed to the portfolio of home affairs as well. In these roles, Ismail was in charge of detaining people under the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA), which permits detention without trial. After resigning in 1967, Ismail expressed amazement that he was not "the most hated man in Malaya" for his actions. Although many were critical of the ISA, Ismail believed it was necessary for public order, stating that "Abuse of the Act can be prevented by vigilant public opinion via elections, a free Press and above all the Parliament."
Read more about this topic: Ismail Abdul Rahman
Famous quotes containing the word independent:
“[My father] was a lazy man. It was the days of independent incomes, and if you had an independent income you didn’t work. You weren’t expected to. I strongly suspect that my father would not have been particularly good at working anyway. He left our house in Torquay every morning and went to his club. He returned, in a cab, for lunch, and in the afternoon went back to the club, played whist all afternoon, and returned to the house in time to dress for dinner.”
—Agatha Christie (1891–1976)