The Story Of Tunku Abdul Rahman And His Time In The United Kingdom
November 29, 2009 by Joseph Archibald
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I got on a flight from London Stanstead to Kuala Lumpur International Airport recently, on my way to spending time in Sarawak, Malaysia and I came across what was a very interesting article about the first Prime Minister of Malaysia. The article focuses upon “Tunku” as he was titled in Malaysia, and his time spent in Cambridgeshire, England.
The article author – Mansor Puteh did the interview back in’89, just one year before Tunku Abdul Rahman’s death. He remembers that Tunku would recall the period of time he spent at University in England very fondly, and thus he took it upon himself to come over to England to see for himself what it is (was) really like.
This particular article relates the experience of Mansor and his nephew traveling to England to follow in the footsteps of Tunku. They arrived at Stanstead Airport (the same airport I left from) and proceeded to Cambridge to begin the “journey”. Tunku spent his time at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge so Mansor visited one of his lodgings in Grange Road near to the college.
Apparently however, Tunku was not allowed to remain on campus at St Catherine’s College for a whole term because back in the year’19 when he was there, it was highly unusual for a Malayan to be a student of Cambridge because they “did not look like British students” so it was preferred they were to live off campus.
The university Dean was totally shocked and proclaimed that of course he could live on campus but Tunku himself turned down the opportunity and chose to remain living off campus instead.
Tunku died in December’90 at the grand age of 87. Mansor Puteh is a well known Malaysian author and film maker. He is currently working on a new film called Malysian Snow, which is based in England and focuses on the experiences of some Malaysian students.
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