The Story Of Tunku Abdul Rahman And His Time In The United Kingdom
On a flight between London Stanstead and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia I came across an interesting article that was very much an insight. The article describes a part of the life of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, after independence from Britain in’57. Tunku Abdul Rahman spent a few years in Britain studying at Cambridge University.
The article writer – Mansor Puteh – said when he interviewed the Prime Minister many years ago, his eyes would fill with tears on his recollection of the time spent at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge. Mansor Puteh is related to Tunku through is elder sister – Rokiah binti Puteh – being married to him, so he had much time to spend with the Prime Minster.
He arrived at Stanstead Airport with his nephew and then proceeded to Grange Street which is located near to St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, where Tunku spent his time living and studying. Although you would consider a prince of any country to have free rein no matter where they went – free to do almost anything they would wish to do, this was not the case back in’19, not in England anyhow.
As it turns out Tunku was initially not accepted when he expressed his wish to live on the university campus grounds because he did “not look quite like other students”. In other words, he had darker skin than everyone else at the university.
The British advisor to Malaya was summonsed by the Sultan of Kedah so that he may explain to the Dean of the university that Tunku was a prince in Malaya. The Dean was totally shocked and exclaimed “why did you not say to me this before!”. Tunku was then offered a room on campus but he gracefully declined as he had grown accustomed to living elsewhere by then.
Tunku died at the age of 87 in’90. The author of the article – Mansor Puteh, is a reputed Malaysian film maker and writer. He is at the moment working on a film entitled Malaysian Snow which focuses on the lives of a few Malaysian students studying in the UK. You can read the full article written by Puteh in the “Travel 3 Sixty” brochure.
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