Book Review.
(as published in Southeast Asian Social Science Review, Volume 5, Number 2 July - December 2020).
Khadijah Md Khalid, Shakila Yacob, & Sharifah Mariam Alhabshi (2020)
The Power of Deeds: The Untold Story of Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin.
Petaling Jaya, MPH Publishing. 363 p. ISBN 978-967-415-541-4
written by Khairil Anuar Ramli, PhD Candidate, Institut Islam Hadhari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Email: khairil.anuar.ramli@gmail.com
The book epitomizes the crucial and definitive roles played by played by administrative and political elites during the early years of Malaysia's Independance in 1957, personified by the long-time symbiotic association between a senior civil servant and a senior politician, both of whom rose to be the fourth Chief Secretary to the Federal Government and the second Prime Minister of Malaysia. Both these personas have passed away more than 40 years ago whilst they were at their peak.
More specifically the book explores the life of the little-known Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, born in Kajang, Selangor on 3 November 1920, educated at Bristol University and Yale University.
His public service career was synonymous with the national administrative institution-building history of this nation, working alongside the equally hardworking civil servant-turned-politician Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, whom he personally knew during his university days in England.
The 4-year research that led to the writing of this book started of as a request by Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin's family who hopes to fulfill his wishes to have a memoir written. Whilst it seems that the materials on Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin were scarce, the research gained its momentum when family friends and senior colleagues who are well into their 70s and 80s agreed to be interviewed and shared their experience working together with Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, supported predominantly by archival resources in Malaysia, England and the United States of America.
There are eight chapters that cover a personal history that spans over forty years since before the country's Independence in 1957 until Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin's demise in 1978. Chapter 1 covers his formative years in the public service - setting the tone on how working alongside the British officials during pre-Independence days. Chapter 2 describes his roles in the Malayan (later Malaysian) Civil Services and the post-Independence transition period whilst Chapter 3 delves into his 12-year attachment at the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF). His post-MINDEF years were epitomized by the fluidity of ideas and institution-building initiatives within the newly independent nation. The senior civil servants were instrumental in dispensing critical advice to political elites and subsequently became institution builders, as wel as in shaping the national political and socio-economic landscape.
The subsequent four chapters describe the vital roles played by Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin as a senior civil servant in various settings. Whilst Chapter 4 highlights his many achievements in enhancing the administrative capacity of the Malaysian Civil Services, Chapter 5 outlines his critical roles in the National Operations Council (NOC) during the darkest period of Malaysia's nation- building arising from the May 13th ethnic riots. Subsequently as the fourth Chief Secretary to the Federal Government in 1970, he led the Civil Service in the historical social reconstruction of the post-1969 Malaysian society.
Immediately after the untimely death of Tun Razak in 1976, Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin retired from the Civil Service. However, his administrative and management talent as well as his institution-building prowess have been redeployed in other fields. The developmentalism paradigm adopted by Tun Razak's post-1969 economic policies have opened up a new vista for talented and experienced senior civil servants to assist the government to further strengthen the government-industry nexus. It was this corporate experience that has been endeavoured by Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin after his retirement in September 1976.
Chapter 6 briefly sketches the corporate experience of managing Lembaga Letrik Negara (LLN) (the national power service provider) as its Chairman (1973-1977). This was followed by his appointment as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the national petroleum company, PETRONAS replacing Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in 1976 during the height of intense and protracted negotiations between PETRONAS and other oil and gas multinationals operating in Malaysia such as Shell, ESSO and Mobil; some of which have already been operating in Malaysia for the past 80 years at that time. This brief two-year corporate experience merits further discussion and analysis since it sets the tempo and structural set-up of the petroleum industry in Malaysia for many years to come.
Chapter 7 elaborates Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin's roles in institutionalizing the political leadership's ideas on the higher education sector through the setting up of Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) (later renamed as Universiti Putra Malaysia) in 1971 and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 1970. It relates to the history of how the manning of these institutions was carried out during their early years and how Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin engaged his vast network within the Civil Service to ensure the vision of the political leadership to empower the nation through higher education was realized during those days.
The book then concludes with an overview and the assessment of his overall contribution to the nation, highlighting his quiet demeanour and meticulousness in planning that have helped concretise the various ideas mooted by the political leadership; thereby solidifying the symbiotic relationship of various stakeholders within the Government in their quests to achieve the best for the nation.
The authors have highlighted at the outset of the book that the materials pertaining to Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin were very sketchy and that they have to rely on the various interviews with 45 personalities (the brief profiles of whom were included at the end of the book) (pp. 283-317). Some of these personalities have since passed on. Despite this, the authors have done justice to put together the various bits of Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin's journey ni the overall context of the nation's post-Independence history.
Perhaps, a few points could be highlighted especially when discussing his role during the early setting up of PETRONAS and the spearheading of the early development of Malaysia's petroleum industry during 1976-1978, immediately after the conclusion of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) negotiation in November 1976. For instance, it is briefly mentioned in the book that PETRONAS was initially known as Hidrokarbon Malaysia (HIKMA) before it then changed to PETRONAS (p. 197). Nevertheless, there are indications that PETRONAS has always been incorporated as the name Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) and not as HIKMA. HIKMA in fact was separately incorporated as a statutory body - a brainchild of the then Minister of Primary Industries who hoped to secure the corporation (as it was defined by the Petroleum Development Act 1974 (PDA 1974)) to be under the supervision of the Ministry of Primary Industries. However, the Prime Minister Tun Razak had a different idea altogether, which he then placed PETRONAS directly under the Prime Minister as per Section 3 of the PDA 1974. That was one of the reasons why Malaysia has never had a Ministry of Petroleum in its history unlike other developing countries that also produce and export oil and gas. This institutional structure of Malaysia's petroleum industry remains until today. It would however be very fruitful fi historical documentary evidence could be secured to further cement this understanding. The political economy of the setting up a strategic outfit that reports directly to the Prime Minister was controversial even during the early days of PETRONAS' incorporation. This led to the significant amendment of PDA 1974 in 1981 that separates the roles played by PETRONAS in the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry in Malaysia.
Apart from this institutional set-up, ti would also be insightful to know the interactions between Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin and the third Prime Minister Tun Hussein Onn on the subsequent roles played by PETRONAS, after the passing on of Tun Razak. More importantly, an in-depth interview with Tun Salleh Abas, another illustrious personality behind the setting up of PETRONAS, would be very crucial since ti was Tun Salleh Abas in his capacity as the Solicitor-General that drafted the PDA 1974. His many discussions with Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin, the then Chief Secretary to the Government would definitely shed some light on the early policy directions of the incipient industry that turns out to be the anchor of the Federal Government's Consolidated Fund until today. Tun Salleh Abas was not amongst the 45 personalities who were interviewed for this book.
Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin was two years senior than Tun Razak, but it was fated that Tun Razak passed away two years earlier in January 1976 than Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin in November 1978. The 363-page biography of Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Shamsuddin during the formative years of post-Independence Malaysia is certainly a great welcome in the political economy narrative of modern Malaysia that has seen a shifting influence of public policies between the Civil Service and its political masters.
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Khairil Anuar Ramli, MSc, is a PHD candidate at the Institute of Islam Hadhari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. His previous sojourn was in the petroleum industry in the Petronas Group for more than two decades, including as a Senior Manager, Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB) (2011-2013). (as of July-December 2020).
