THE POWER of DEEDS: The Untold Story of Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin
PREFACE
One fine afternoon more than three years ago, I was approached by Dr Shamsul Bahar Abdul Kadir to write a biography of his late father, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, who served as the Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia from 1970 until the untimely demise of his close friend and colleague, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein in January 1976. I could not remember Abdul Kadir as I was still in primary school at the time, but I had a good memory of Tun Razak, the popular Prime Minister during the former’s tenure.
I initially hesitated in accepting Shamsul Bahar’s invitation to write about his unassuming late father due to the lack of relevant or related documents and research materials. I could foresee that the search for information would be a daunting task because to build or support the arguments in the biography, it would be necessary to refer to either primary or secondary sources.
I immediately thought of Tan Sri Arshad Ayub, then Chairman of the University of Malaya Board of Directors and a former prominent senior civil servant, and called to solicit his views on the proposed biography of Abdul Kadir. He advised me to drop whatever I was doing then and take on the project which significantly eased my trepidation. I was also very fortunate that I managed to discuss the matter with other senior civil servants, particularly Tun Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid, former Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia (1990-1996), who enthusiastically encouraged me to do the biography. Tun Ahmad Sarji has always regarded Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin as his colleague and mentor. The spin-off from the two meetings with him, which included Dr Shamsul Bahar in the first meeting and a few preliminary interviews with selected personalities, have helped pave the way in securing the much-needed supporting evidence and documents pertaining to Abdul Kadir.
After more than three months, I finally accepted Shamsul Bahar's request to embark on writing the biography of his late father whom, I opine, after some background checking, very well deserves to be accorded his rightful place in the country's administrative and political history. Given that his destiny was closely intertwined with the birth of a then fledgling nation, Malaysia, his biography would in a way remind and educate the younger generation of the nation, the struggles and its history in the early stages of independence.
Since the research was multidisciplinary in nature with a strong emphasis on history, politics, public administration and public policy, I quickly thought of experts whom I believe could significantly contribute to the proposed biography project. Two names swiftly came to mind: Dr Sharifah Mariam Alhabshi, a colleague and an associate professor at the International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA), and Professor Dr Shakila Yacob of University Malaya’s History Department. The inclusion of other researchers and academics trained in history, public administration and public policy would bring a substantial added value to this project. Dr Shamsul Bahar and I were delighted when I managed to convince my two colleagues to be co-authors and researchers for the project. Another colleague, Professor Dr Mohd Hazim Shah Abdul Murad, also agreed to help with the editing. With my specialisation and training in political science, political economy and international relations, Professor Shakila in history and Dr Sharifah Mariam in public policy, I felt that I had a solid and credible team to embark on writing the biography of Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, one of the most illustrious sons of Malaysia.
The Context
Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin dutifully served the country when it was still young and being developed. Though many anecdotes of the heroic efforts of these early nation-builders that had been told, it is unfortunate and heartbreaking that few of those were documented. This ultimately brings us to the urgent need to conduct more research and publication, particularly on local administrative or bureaucratic elites who have made noteworthy contributions to the country's development.
This biography is a serious attempt to document and highlight the important role played by Abdul Kadir and several of the key personalities in Malaysian public administration in the formulation of developmental ideas and institution-building process, particularly during the first 20 years after Malaysia’s independence. In the ensuing first two decades after Merdeka, the Malay(a)sian civil service (MCS) was helmed by a group of mostly educated, qualified and competent senior civil servants who often played an advisory role to the political leadership, led by the Prime Minister. The country was extremely blessed to have Tun Razak, a popular national leader, famously known to be very hardworking and dedicated to public service. He later joined active politics and was eventually appointed Prime Minister in 1970.
The Razak administration was successfully assisted by a group of selfless civil servants of high calibre, led by none other than the exemplary Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin. This biography also traces the evolution and unique relationship between Abdul Kadir and his trusted friend, Tun Razak, who later became his "superior" and colleague. Although Tun Razak was at the political forefront and basking in its limelight, it was often Abdul Kadir and a group of other senior bureaucrats that he relied on when it came to the implementation of the policies formulated and adopted by the government.
Despite this biography being long overdue, the timing of the publication proves to be relevant to the present situation, particularly in the context of Malaysian society having experienced a radical political change after more than 60 years of rule by the Alliance and later, the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. There is no doubt that the BN dominance, especially post 1981, has had a great impact on the style and performance of the country’s public service. Malaysia initially started out as a country that inherited a relatively effective civil service and was admired and envied by many in the region. The civil service was the bedrock of the country’s development and progress. However, over the years, mainly due to the overwhelming dominance of politicians over the bureaucrats, the nature of the relationship between the politicians and the public administrators changed, from development led by the administrative elites to a more dominant political-led direction. Public service performance and delivery was dictated by political masters who harnessed the talent and resources of the corporate consultants and the private sector, pushing public administrators to a less prominent and significant role.
The history of Malay(a)sian politics and public bureaucracy has shown that many of the political leaders between the period of the 1950s and '70s were recruited from the civil service. Leaders such as Datuk Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn were all civil servants who were first recruited to serve in public administration. This phenomenon explains the relatively harmonious nature of the relationship between the political and administrative elites of the country, which was based on mutual trust, respect and understanding. It is within the context of this close relationship, that the authors have had to situate the bond between Abdul Kadir and his political master, Tun Razak.
The Challenges
With nothing much written about Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, how do we go about getting an insight into the character of such an illustrious personality who, like the other senior bureaucrats, had worked mainly behind the scenes and left behind many good deeds? As the lead author of this biography project, I was particularly concerned about how to gather information on Abdul Kadir, who had passed away more than 40 years ago.
With the help of Dr Shamsul Bahar, Abdul Kadir’s second son, and former senior civil servants Tun Ahmad Sarji, Tan Sri Arshad Ayub and Tan Sri Dr Sulaiman Mahbob, we began to identify individuals who are still alive and have recollections of Abdul Kadir. Of course, it would be undeniably great if the person(s) have had the experience of directly working with Abdul Kadir and had had close contact with him. With the help of Dr Shamsul Bahar and others, we managed to identify a few people whom we could interview, such as Tan Sri Alwi Jantan, Brigadier General Dato’ Abdul Latif Ahmad (Rtd) and Datuk Anwaruddin Ahamad Osman. However, they had little to no interactions at all with Abdul Kadir since they were only in their mid-twenties when they first joined the government.
Nevertheless, one civil servant was an exception: Ahmad Sarji, who had the privilege to serve as the Under-Secretary to the Cabinet and Constitution Division of the Prime Minister’s Department in December 1972, while Abdul Kadir was the Chief Secretary to the Government and Secretary to the Cabinet. Ahmad Sarji confessed that he had learnt much from Abdul Kadir, whom he regarded as his mentor. The latter had greatly influenced him to excel in public service and taught him how cabinet decisions would be formulated and acted upon by the secretariat.
However, we regret being unable to interview some of the key personalities whom we initially thought could help us shed some light on the private as well as the professional life of this towering Malaysian. One of them was (the late) Tan Sri Abu Zarim Haji Omar, former General Manager of the National Electricity Board (NEB) or LLN. Abu Zarim was not only a close associate and confidant of Abdul Kadir but also his brother-in-law. Abu Zarim would have been one of the best persons to be consulted for this biography project. Unfortunately, he passed away in July 2016.
Another important personality would be the late Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, who was appointed as the political secretary to Tun Razak from 1963 to 1974, the first appointment of its kind in post-Merdeka Malay(a)sia. The charismatic and flamboyant (and controversial) Abdullah, unfortunately passed away in June 2016. The latest loss is the recent demise of Dato’ Seri Mohamed Khalil Haji Hussein (19 May 2018), who had gone through similar educational and professional experiences as Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin. With the passing of several key senior civil servants (between 2016 to 2018) who could have significantly contributed to the enrichment of this biography, the authors felt compelled to record the insights and stories of other living key personalities, on the Malaysia’s political history and development, as soon as possible. It was fortuitous that Dato’ Mohamed Dahan who started his public service career in Pahang in 1970, became enthusiastic about the biography and volunteered to review all the draft chapters, adding colour to some of the stories. More importantly, the authors hope that these important individuals could share their views and anecdotes about Abdul Kadir.
Throughout our research, we have learned that Tun Razak and Abdul Kadir seemed inseparable since their early days together in colonial Singapore. Thus, it is only logical for the writers to refer to the available sources on Tun Razak to know more about Abdul Kadir. Subsequently, we tracked the writings on Tun Razak, which included his days together with Abdul Kadir at Raffles College, followed by the State of Pahang, the Merdeka delegation, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) and the Cabinet (but there was not much on him either). That was how the authors managed to reconstruct and narrate the history of this illustrious Malaysian.
With the digitisation of primary sources and documents, mainly by developed nations such as the US, the UK, including neighbouring Singapore, gradually the authors, through their physical and virtual visits to some of these amazing libraries and archives, were able to reconstruct a narrative of this distinguished civil servant. Of course, not forgetting the assistance rendered by the Arkib Negara Malaysia, which gave us a chronological overview by providing the timeline of Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin’s career progression.
The story of Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin as one of the most trusted administrators, advisors and confidants to Tun Razak is a story that must shared with the good people of Malaysia. He was behind the serious Tun Razak, very much loved and admired by so many people. The Razak administration was aided by prominent and "colourful" personalities, which included the afore-mentioned Abdullah Ahmad who served as his political secretary and Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie, popularly known as King Ghaz. Like Tun Razak, Ghazali also began his career as a civil servant and later decided to join active politics and was appointed as Minister of Special Duties and Information (1970-1975). Tun Razak was surrounded by a set of highly capable and competent young men to help him govern the nation at a challenging time in its post-Merdeka history.
While Tun Razak was famous and remembered to this day, Abdul Kadir was not that talked of, discussed or reminisced. The authors believe that the unique and inspiring Abdul Kadir-Abdul Razak story has to be uncovered, shared and appreciated by all Malaysians. This biography is about the long, arduous and fulfilling journey embarked by two close friends in their quest to serve a young nation beset with so many challenges, including the threat of collapse. Even though the work is historical, it is also relevant to contemporary Malaysia. Given the challenges of the current new government is facing post GE14, the lessons of the past should provide us with the moral courage and political will to move on and succeed, as the previous leadership had done. It would be tragic indeed if the sacrifices by these political and administrative elites were made in vain.
Khadijah Md Khalid
Lead Author
3 November 2019
