Chapter Thirteen

Summary

Shortly before Merdeka was declared, the Tunku spoke to me about going to Washington, D.C., as our country's first ambassador to the United States of America and at the same time, accredit myself to the United Nations as Malaya's first permanent representative. He said the choice was between Razak and me and honestly, he said, he could not spare Razak as he wanted him in Malaya to assist him. When I accepted the offer, relatives and friends speculated that I had been banished. This thought never occurred to me. It satisfied me to be offered a position which would enable our newly independent country to be known abroad.

As is usual with me, when I took on the assignment I threw my heart and soul into the job. It was a tough assignment and not made any easier by the lack of prior government preparation. In fact, I had to set up the two missions from scratch. The Tunku sent me about two weeks before independence to the United States to look for suitable buildings in Washington and New York for our mission. In doing so, I felt we must not seem bigger than we actually were. Our Embassy had to conform to our status noticeable without ostentation. I managed to buy three buildings in Washington for the Embassy and secured a lease for our office in New York. It was fortunate that I went as a Minister of the Cabinet, with authority to negotiate on the spot, otherwise the whole negotiation would not have been completed as quickly as it had been. (There was a sidelight to this episode: when I arrived back in Kuala Lumpur, I was told at the airport that the Cabinet had sanctioned the purchase of two, instead of three, buildings in Washington. As Cabinet was sitting in the afternoon of the day of my arrival, I attended the sitting and managed to persuade the Cabinet to sanction the purchase of the third building.)

Our journey to Washington was partly nerve-racking, partly humorous, but never dull. Our party consisted of four women, nine children and thirty-one pieces of luggage, and only two men: Ismail bin Mohamed Ali (now a Tan Sri and the Governor of Bank Negara) and myself.