Hussein Onn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation,
search
Hussein bin Dato' Onn (February
12, 1922—May 29, 1990) who is of 3/4
Malay and 1/4 Circassian ancestry was the third Prime
Minister of Malaysia, ruling from 1976 to 1981. He was granted the
soubriquet Bapa Perpaduan (Father of Unity). He was born in Johor
Bahru, Johor
on February
12, 1922 to
Dato Onn
Jaafar and Datin Halimah Hussein.
[edit] Early life
Tun Hussein received his early
education in Singapore and at the English College in Johor Bahru.
After leaving school, he joined the Johor
Military Forces as a cadet in 1940 and was sent a year later to
the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, India. Upon
completion of his training, he was absorbed into the Indian Army and served
in the Middle
East when the Second World War broke. After the war, his vast
experience prompted the British to employ him as an instructor at the Malayan Police Recruiting and Training
Centre in Rawalpindi. Tun Hussein came back to
Malaysia in 1945 and was appointed Commandant of the Johor Bahru Police Depot. The following year
he joined the Malaya
Civil Service as an assistant administrative officer in Segamat, Johor. He was later
posted to the state of Selangor, becoming Klang and Kuala
Selangor’s district officer. [edit] Entering politics
Tun Hussein, who came from a
family with deep nationalistic spirit and political roots, resigned from the
civil service to go into politics. In 1949, he became the first youth chief
of UMNO (United Malays National
Organization), a party his father helped established. In 1950, he was
elected the UMNO secretary general. Tun Hussein however left UMNO in 1951 to
join his father in forming the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP). With IMP losing momentum, Tun
Hussein went to London
to study law at Lincoln's Inn, qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law.
He came back as a certified lawyer and practiced in Kuala Lumpur. [edit] Rise to power
Tun Hussein returned to
politics in 1968 after being persuaded by the then Prime Minister Tun
Abdul Razak to rejoin UMNO. He stood and won the general elections in
1969 and was appointed as the education minister. Tun Hussein’s meteoric rise
continued when on August 13, 1973 he succeeded the late Tun
Dr Ismail as the Deputy Prime Minister. On January 15,
1976 he was
appointed as Prime Minister of Malaysia after the death of Tun Razak. [1] Tun Hussein was renowned for
stressing on the issue of unity through policies aimed at rectifying economic
imbalances between the communities. For instance, April 20, 1981 saw the National Unit Trust Scheme being launched.
He also gave serious consideration to the concept of Rukun Tetangga (a neighbourhood watch scheme) and the fight
against the drug menace. Tun Hussein, who was married to
Toh Puan Suhaila Tan Sri Haji Mohd Noah, for
42 years underwent a coronary bypass in early 1981. On July 17 the
same year, he retired from active politics and relinquished his prime
minister post due to what was officially stated to be health concerns,
however, many believes he was forced out of office by Mahathir. He was
succeeded by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. [edit] Post-retirement
After his retirement as Prime
Minister he continued to contribute to welfare organizations. He was
instrumental in the setting up of the Tun Hussein Onn Eye Hospital. He was
also an advisor to Petronas the country’s oil company and Chairman of
Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS). During the 1987 UMNO leadership
crisis, Tun Hussein fell out with Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, supporting Team B
along with Tunku Abdul Rahman. Tun Hussein along with the Tunku, henceforth,
became a strident critic of the Mahathir administration and died without
having rejoined UMNO. He died on the 29 May 1990 in Seaton
Medical Center, San
Francisco, at the age of 68. He had two sons and four daughters. He is
buried in Makam Pahlawan (Heroes Mausoleum) near Masjid
Negara, Kuala Lumpur. Tun Hussein Onn was looked upon
as being very sincere in his struggle for racial unity and had a reputation
of being firm against anyone that tried to create racial unrest in the
country and it was due to this, that he was known as 'Father of Unity'. Hussein's son, Dato' Seri Hishammuddin Bin Tun Hussein,
became the Education Minister of Malaysia on March 30, 2004. On the 17
September 2005,
Hussein Onn's eldest daughter Datin Roqiyah Hanim, died at the age of 56 from
breast cancer in Kuala Lumpur. [edit] Notes and
references
Retrieved
from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussein_Onn" Categories: 1922 births | 1990 deaths | Deputy Prime Ministers of
Malaysia | Malaysian politicians | Prime Ministers of Malaysia
| Malaysian Muslims | Malay Malaysians | People from Johor | People from Dehradun | Malaysians of European
descent | People of mixed
Asian-European ethnicity
www.huatuan.com/ab6/history/husseinonn |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
