KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 ― Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's second deputy prime minister, talks frankly about how the Alliance won a landslide victory in the 1955 general election to set the stage for independence. Malay Mail today brings you the third instalment from parts of his unfinished memoirs, Drifting into Politics.

Chapter ten

The stage was now set for the first elections of the Federal Legislative Council. At stake were fifty-two seats. The Alliance had to win the majority of these seats if it were to form the government.

Although the Labour Party was contesting the election, it was obvious that the fight was between the Alliance and Datuk Onn Jaafar’s new party, The Party Negara. The government was, of course, backing Onn and his party and it was known that Sir Donald MacGillivray was in continuous contact with Onn by telephone from the King’s House.

As far as the Alliance was concerned, the main question was who was to challenge Onn, who was standing in a Johor constituency. Tunku Abdul Rahman characteristically put up a trial balloon by spreading the rumour that Datuk Sardon Jubir, the Umno Youth leader, was willing to sacrifice himself by taking on Onn! When Sardon heard of it, he promptly denied the rumour because the fear of Onn was terrible and the shadow of Onn was dark. There remained only my brother Suleiman and I, members of my family who were the only ones who could possibly take on Onn. And so, Suleiman finally offered to take up the challenge.

As long as I live, I shall never forget that election. It was the most hectic moment of my life and I am sure it was the same for the other Alliance leaders. Our headquarters in Johor Baru worked around the clock and we concentrated especially on Onn. When the results came out, not only did we win fifty-one out of fifty-two seats, but Suleiman also defeated Onn by a sizeable majority.

When the election was over, the first Alliance-dominated executive council was formed. The Tunku was made chief minister and minister of home affairs; Razak Hussein was appointed minister of education; I became minister of natural resources; Suleiman was chosen to be minister of local government; Henry Lee was made minister of transport; Aziz  Ishak became minister of agriculture and telecommunications; Sardon appointed minister of works; and V.T. Sambanthan was made minister of labour.

Our first task was to prepare for a trip to London to negotiate for independence.  Although in view of our overwhelming victory at the polls, one would not have expected hesitancy on the part of any of the Alliance leaders as to the timing of the talks with the British government, it was not so.

It was argued that it would be better to postpone the talks until the end of our mandate so that public opinion could be worked up before the next elections, thus ensuring another lease of office for the Alliance. Of course, this view never had the chance of being tested because the overwhelming majority in the Alliance would not brook any delay. In preparing for the London trip, one of the obstacles to be overcome was the attitude of the Rulers. They were naturally apprehensive of their future in an independent Malaya. Although the Alliance made it clear in its election manifesto that the Rulers had an important role to play in an independent Malaya (especially by virtue of the fact that in a multiracial country such as Malaya, they would form the focal point of loyalty), some of them had to be convinced of the necessity of taking early action in certain areas in order to ensure that independence could be won smoothly. One of these areas was the abolition of the post of British advisers to the Rulers. The late Sultan Ibrahim of Johor was adamant that he should retain his adviser role but he was thwarted by an event that I shall describe later.

We finally succeeded in persuading the Rulers to send men to represent them at the talks in London. Most of the men chosen were sympathetic to the Alliance cause, with the exception of the menteri besar of Perak, Datuk Panglima Bukit Gantang. However, in the end and to our surprise, even he supported our cause.

We travelled to London in two stages: the first by boat and the second by plane. The whole idea was Tunku’s. He had conceived the idea (which worked very well) of throwing the members of the delegation together to mix and work during the whole period of the  sea voyage to give them the opportunity of ironing out their differences so that by the end of the voyage, they would emerge as one team to face the British government.

On board the ship, we met every morning with the Tunku as chairman and by the time we arrived in Karachi, all of us, including Datuk Panglima Bukit Gantang, were agreed on the lines of discussion with the British government.