When Dato Onn left the party, the leadership fell into the hands of Tunku Abdul Rahman who, it is commonly believed, was persuaded by Tun Razak to accept the leadership.

The first time I met the Tunku was in Kuala Lumpur when my wife and I were on our way to Penang for our honeymoon. On one of the evenings when we were in Kuala Lumpur, we were invited by my friend, Mr Eugene Seow, who was an architectural student with me in Australia, to his flat. When we arrived, we saw a man drinking gin in the corner. We were introduced to him and I was struck by his friendliness, charm, and unassuming ways. Without hesitation, he invited all of us to spend the evening with him at the Kuala Lumpur Flying Club. He kept us there until he was told that we were on honeymoon. In typical fashion he bundled us off telling us that we had no business being on the dance floor so late when we should be in bed enjoying our honeymoon.

When the Tunku took over the leadership of UMNO, the Malay Graduates’ Association received a message from him asking it to nominate a member to serve on the Central Executive Committee of the party and he mentioned his preference for me. I was at this time an established medical practitioner in Johor Bahru and a member of the Johor State Council, the only one who was not an UMNO member: I was nominated a member of the Council on the establishment of the Federation of Malaya in 1948. One of the first things I did in the Council was to oppose the establishment of the Federation because it was constitutionally illegal, especially with regard to the Johor Constitution and I pointed out that I wanted my objection recorded in the proceedings of the Council. It was also while I was a member of the Council that Dato Onn tried to persuade me to join UMNO and said that if I agreed to do so, he would nominate me as a member of the Federal Legislative Council. I tried to reject him at first by politely stating that I was not prepared to sacrifice my medical practice to become a full-time politician.

The growing strength of the Alliance both as shown in its success at the polls and by the increasing number of its supporters was not without notice from the colonial administrators, especially Sir Gerald Templer, a shrewd and able man. When Sir Gerald became High Commissioner, the Tunku and myself were made members of the Federal Legislative Council. The Tunku was also made a member of the Executive Council.

During the period from 1948 to 1955, the Federal Legislative Council consisted of official members and nominated members. The nominated members were appointed by the High Commissioner to represent various “interests” in the country, but apart from European members who represented British commercial and industrial interests, the majority of members until Dato Onn left UMNO were either members of UMNO or the MCA. After the Tunku took over the leadership of the party, there were only a handful of UMNO members left; the others had followed Dato Onn.

Looking back now on the old Federal Legislative Council, it can be generally said that its members were on the whole able men and if it had not been for the fact that the contentious theme for the period was that of independence, they would have served the country quite well. The President of the Council, Mr Donald MacGillivray, was an able, shrewd administrator, typical of the breed which the colonial office was sending out at that period to her troubled colonies. The Chief Secretary, Sir David Watherston, was a conscientious civil servant whose behaviour and attitude was more of a priest than a civil servant. Sir Michael Hogan, the Attorney General, was a brilliant Irishman who must have kissed the Blarney Stone much earlier than any ordinary Irishman because his eloquence was supreme and this, coupled with his wit and superb presentation of his case, made him admired and respected by all. Among the Asian members, Mr Yong Shook Lin was noted for his clear advocacy and the sing-song style of his oratory; Dato E.E.C. Thuraisingham for his verbosity about nothing; and Dato Onn for his superb eloquence both in English and Malay.

As for us UMNO and MCA members of the Council, we were more interested in the political issues which were debated in the Council.

We did not neglect our aim of achieving independence at the time when we were strengthening the party and building the Tunku as a leader. We met regularly at my house in Johor Bahru. When I said “we”, I meant the Malay Graduates’ Association, but the ones who attended the meetings regularly were Encik Suffian and myself. The two of us would prepare a paper which was discussed with the Tunku and other members of the Association.

I was keen to follow the footsteps of Ghana which just had the status of self-government conferred on them and which was then on the eve of her independence. We concluded that the most important thing was to hold national elections and that if the pro-Merdeka party swept the elections, independence was a certainty.

At this time General Sir Gerald Templer, the High Commissioner of Malaya, was also talking of holding elections but he was thinking of holding them at the village pump level, thereby introducing democracy at the grass-roots level.

We disagreed for two reasons: first, we were convinced that this was a delaying tactic on the part of the British and second, we were convinced that elections at the village level would not be successful and today we are proven right because very few elected local councils are successful.

However, we were not going to let the elections proposed by Templer remain uncontested by us because we were also aware that these elections provided a means of testing our strength and also our popularity with the people.

The introduction of elections brought great change to the political scene. Dato Onn had, by this time, started his Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) and his timing was such that it was in readiness for the Kuala Lumpur municipal election. One of the persons whom Dato Onn disliked, and who disliked him in return, was Mr H.S. Lee (later Tun Sir Henry Lee). Their dislike of each other was so bitter and so personal that each was bound to oppose whatever the other did. Henry Lee, at that time, had control of the Chinese guilds in Selangor and, as such, he was in control of the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA).

I was in the United States from August 1957 till December 1958. I returned to Malaya via Italy and arrived in Kuala Lumpur in January 1959. I had towards the end of 1958 written to Tunku of my decision to return and contest the Parliamentary Election of 1959. He agreed to my request. Although I returned to Malaya after only an absence of oneand- a-half years, I saw progress which could not have taken place if Malaya was still a colony. I was also quite pleased to note that although I had been away, my political stock in the party and the country was high.

The Tunku had decided on my return to go on leave, to work for the party to ensure that we won the forthcoming elections with a big majority. He assigned me to the Ministry of External Affairs where I decided that our foreign policy should pursue an independent line, by which I meant that our stand on international problems should not be influenced by the policies of other countries, big or small. I learned when I was at the United Nations — where in addition to being a member of the Commonwealth group, we belonged also to the Afro- Asian group — that the surest way to get into trouble was not to have a definite policy of our own on foreign issues because then we would be at the mercy of others. Although our policy of moderation in the United Nations did not get the approval of many members of the Afro-Asian group, we were respected because our policy was definite, logical, and consistent.

It was while I was Minister of External Affairs that I went to Jogjakarta to attend the Colombo Plan meeting. I met President Sukarno for the first (and only) time and heard him speak. What I saw of Indonesia then depressed me especially after I had discussions with Dr Subandrio on the Association of South Asia (ASA). He was interested only in bilateral economic arrangements in so far as his interest in economics (which was not very far) was concerned. He told me he did not care very much about the economy of Indonesia so long as the revolution remained unfinished.

After the return of the Merdeka mission from London, Malaya was launched into a short period of self-government from 1955 to 1957. Tunku Abdul Rahman became Chief Minister, Razak retained the Ministry of Education and I became Minister of Commerce and Industry.

The main events which dominated this short period of selfgovernment were the Tunku's meeting with Chin Peng and the work of the independent commission on the constitution.

Tunku was anxious for the state of emergency which had plagued Malaya for a decade to be over when independence was declared on 31 August 1957. In order to find out whether this was possible, he argued that it was essential for him to meet Chin Peng, the leader of the Communist Party of Malaya, and have a frank dialogue with him. As was usual when the Tunku decided on taking an unorthodox step to settle a political problem, he met with opposition. In this case, he was opposed by the British and also by many leaders of the Alliance, including myself. We were worried that in his anxiety to end the state of emergency, he might compromise himself to the extent that he might endanger the security of the country when independence was achieved. He was steadfast in his desire to talk with them and could not be dissuaded, so the next best thing was to ensure that when the meeting took place, the Tunku was well briefed and his security not endangered. Tunku himself was adamant that a safe passage be guaranteed for Chin Peng and his aides. It says much for the trust that Chin Peng had in the Tunku that he accepted the invitation to meet the Tunku knowing full well that he was throwing himself at the mercy of the Tunku and the British. As is well known by now, Chin Peng rejected Tunku's conditions on the offer of amnesty. For the Tunku, the meeting created a lasting impression. From that day onward, he was convinced that no peace was possible with the communists, and to quote his words, “it is either the communists or me”.

On the political front, the Alliance was busy trying to iron out the differences on communal issues. Hitherto the Alliance had been busy mobilizing the people on an emotional plane to support the cause of independence.

While I agreed to the notion that Malaysia should be formed by the Association of Malaysia, Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak, I had many reservations about the way it was formed and the conditions which Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak imposed for joining the new Federation. As Minister of Home Affairs, I objected to giving Sabah and Sarawak the control of immigration between themselves on one side and Malaya and Singapore on the other. I also opposed the Tunku's generous offer of forty seats in the Federal Parliament. It is true that I did not oppose it so strongly to the extent of resigning from the Cabinet. I am not trying to disclaim my part in the collective responsibility of Cabinet, which approved the formation of Malaysia. I write it down to show how my convictions in politics have changed since the days when we fought for independence and since the early days after independence. During that period, I was uncompromising in what I believed in. I had no strong convictions about how and under what conditions Singapore should join Malaysia. I felt that the only way Singapore could stay in Malaysia after joining it depended not so much on what was written in the constitution, but rather on how the two political parties, the Alliance and the PAP approached this new state of affairs. I was under the impression that the PAP was to govern Singapore to make it the “New York of Southeast Asia”, while the Alliance was to govern Malaysia and that the two would work closely together for the benefit of Malaysia as a whole. However, it was obvious that once Singapore was in Malaysia, the status quo which I hoped would continue was not possible. Personal jealousies and ambitions were so strong and the political approaches to communal problems were so divergent that either of two things was bound to happen: first, if Singapore continued to be a part of Malaysia, communal clashes of such a magnitude as to destroy Malaysia as an identity was bound to occur; second, if Singapore was separated by mutual agreement, the chances of cooperation and eventual union of the two countries was a certainty. As it turned out, the latter alternative happened. In spite of what was believed, the separation of Singapore from Malaysia was by mutual agreement.

The stage was now set for the first election to 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 Dato Onn's new Party, The Party Negara. The government was, of course, backing Dato Onn and his party and it was known that Sir Donald MacGillivray was in continuous contact with Dato Onn by telephone from the King's House.

As far as the Alliance was concerned, the main question was who was to challenge Dato Onn, who was standing in a Johor constituency. The Tunku characteristically put up a trial balloon by spreading the rumour that Dato Sardon, the UMNO Youth Leader, was willing to sacrifice himself by taking on Dato 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 were the only ones who could possibly take on Dato Onn — and so finally Suleiman 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 Bahru worked around the clock and we concentrated especially on Dato Onn. When the results came out, not only did we win fifty-one out of fifty-two seats but Suleiman also defeated Dato 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, Minister of Education; I became Minister of Natural Resources; Suleiman, Minister of Local Government; Henry Lee, Minister of Transport; Aziz Ishak, Minister of Agriculture and Telecommunications; Sardon, Minister of Works and V.T. Sambanthan, Minister of Labour.

Our first task was to prepare for a trip to London to negotiate for independence.

The Malaya I returned to after five years in Australia was totally different from the Malaya I left behind. Before the war, politics was discussed among the select few. Immediately after the war, political feeling engulfed Malaya like a fire engulfs a forest on a hot, dry day.

When I returned on 4 July 1945, the first person I met was my eldest brother. He attracted not only my attention, but also that of others on board the ship by the way he dressed. Other people on the wharf were dressed in shabby shirts and crumpled trousers while he was immaculately dressed in white sharkskin complete with shirt and tie to match. His name was Suleiman. He was later to distinguish himself as the man who dared to challenge and defeat Dato Onn bin Ja'afar at the first national elections in 1955. After his victory, Suleiman held the attention of Tunku Abdul Rahman who treated him with great affection until he died. The Tunku made him a minister in successive alliance governments and when Suleiman's health was failing, he requested the Tunku to send him to Australia as High Commissioner. He died in harness, in Australia, while delivering an important speech on Malaysia. It was Suleiman who briefed me on the controversy over the Malayan Union.

The spearhead of attack against the Malayan Union was the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). In fact, UMNO owes its birth to the Malayan Union. As the Malays saw it, the Malayan Union was designed to deprive the Malays of their rights in the country, first by the abolition of the Malay Sultanate and second by the abolition of the special status accorded to the Malays. Dato Onn united most of the Malays under him in UMNO and fought against the Malayan Union by political means. Other Malays, especially those from Johor, thought that the opposition should be based on legal grounds. Their reasoning was based on the constitution of the Malay states which existed prior to the war.

My term as a member in the Federal Legislative Council was never dull. After only a couple of months as member of Lands and Mines and Communications, Road Transport was added to my “Ministry”. A “Cabinet” committee on this had been set up with Dato E.E.C. Thuraisingham, Mr Yong Shook Lin, Tun Sir Henry Lee, and Tunku Abdul Rahman as members. Dato Nik Kamil wisely never asked this committee to meet and its first meeting was therefore held when I became responsible for Road Transport and by virtue of this, Chairman of the Committee.

I had said earlier that one of the ways by which the Tunku tried to build himself and the party up was to champion any cause which at that moment was arousing public interest. Malay participation in road transport was such a cause. Briefly, there were two ways by which Malays could participate in the road transport business: first by issuing new licences in addition to the existing ones, and second by redistributing existing licences by taking some of them away from the Chinese and giving them to the Malays. The difficulty with the first is that because of the very nature of the structure of road transport, there had to be new routes available before new licences could be issued. This was particularly the case with buses, but not so much with taxis. Dato Onn and his crowd in the Federal Legislative Council decided to take political advantage of this at the expense of the Alliance. All the Tunku wanted was for the Malays to be given extra taxi licences and if he succeeded in this, it would enhance his prestige and that of the party's.

Dato Onn kept on plugging the line that the Chinese must show their good faith to the Malays by giving up some of the licences then owned by the Chinese bus companies. The atmosphere was anything but conducive to an orderly meeting. To make matters worse, the Secretary of the Committee was an inexperienced expatriate officer. Instead of preparing and submitting the minutes of each meeting as a summary of what took place, he insisted on preparing one in which he reported what each member was supposed to have said.

The first couple of years of the Tunku's leadership were lean years indeed. I remember a few months after he became leader, he came to Johor Bahru and we had dinner at Dato Sardon Jubir's house. The Tunku was in a despondent mood. He said the party was in disarray, there was no money, and he had already started to sell his property to replenish the dwindling funds, and that the members were apathetic. My brother Suleiman suggested that he should combine his leadership with his legal practice. The Tunku said that the leadership of the party was a full-time job and that if he had to do it, he must do it properly. This is typical of the Tunku's philosophy: if he undertook a task, he would pursue it single-mindedly to the exclusion of other activities. I told the Tunku not to give up and that I was confident that he would achieve independence for the country.

Later, the Tunku and his family came to Johor Bahru which, at that time, was where UMNO had its headquarters. He had to live in a house in Kampong Kubor. It was an ordinary kampong house and it must have been terribly inconvenient for him and his family to adapt themselves to this new mode of living. His only daughter, who was learning hairdressing, had to walk no less than three miles daily to the salon.

I was then so engrossed in my political activities that I became interested in analysing the Tunku's method of working. Looking back now, his political philosophy and style never changed throughout his career as a politician. He knew that the first weakness of UMNO that had to be remedied was its propaganda. UMNO had no newspaper backing and its own newspaper Suara Merdeka (Voice of Independence) hardly had any circulation at all.

There were two major tasks during the first few months of Tunku's leadership. First, the party had to be strengthened and second, there had to be a plan for the achievement of independence. After months of hard work, we succeeded in finally purging UMNO of those party leaders who were loyal to Dato Onn and those whose objective in remaining in the party was to sabotage the party from within.

One of my earliest recollections of childhood days was a journey, which my parents and I made to Singapore. There was no causeway then across the Straits of Johor. We had to get into a ferry which carried us across to the train at Woodlands. The train journey from Woodlands to the city of Singapore took about an hour. When we landed at Singapore city, my parents hired a horse and carriage. Our journey to my parent's friend's house was a musical one, because the bells tied to the horses’ heads and bodies jingled as they trotted along.

My father's friend was a Chinese gentleman. His house in Singapore city was a shophouse type of building but to me, as a child, it appeared as a big, spacious building. The ground floor was used as a garage and it was full of cars. He was definitely a wealthy Chinese at that time, but years later when I grew up, I met him again. He had lost everything on tin mining.

Ours was a unique family. My father was reserved and hardly talked to anyone of us, and when we wanted to ask him for something, either money or some presents, we had to write to him. My memory of my mother, who died when she was in her early forties, is that of a vivacious woman, warm-hearted and great. She hardly knew any English, but she always surprised me by holding conversations with a lady friend of the family, who only spoke English, for hours on end. Although there were already nine of us in the family — four boys and five girls — both my parents were very fond of taking in Chinese girls as adopted children. I can only remember nine of them. They were brought up no different from my sisters, enjoying the same amenities, and being taught together how to cook and look after the house. They all married well and no one looking at them now could imagine that they were children of Chinese parents.

My paternal grandmother was very fond of travelling and this was made possible because she had many married daughters whose husbands were posted in many faraway places in the State of Johor and also because she enjoyed visiting her other relatives.

HALAQAH: SOCIALIZATION OF THE ISLAMIC POST-TRADITIONALIST IDEA

In this section, I will examine several of the activities that the posttraditionalist community undertakes to improve and make public its ideas. I will do so by looking at a number of institutes that run halaqah(religious study groups).Study Together programmes, Bahts al-Masâil (forums), and so on as a way of spreading Islamic post-traditionalist ideas. The critical ideas of the post-traditionalist community are socialized through a variety of methods and strategies. Besides publication and public discussions, halaqah and Study Together programmes and all their variations are common methods. Halaqahare essentially seminar forums, in the broad sense of the term, which discuss religious issues related to contemporary demands according to a set curriculum.

They pay significant attention to religious discourse that is progressive, liberal, enlightening, not conservative, and anti-textual/scriptural. The focus of their attention is no longer on Islam as a religion that must be taken for granted, but has shifted to the significance and function of religion in life in response to fast-paced social change. They frequently undertake studies of and criticism towards religious doctrine that is considered imprisoning, oppressive, and not in line with humanitarian values. In fact, they do not hesitate to enter the most sensitive areas of religious thought and doctrine to deconstruct and expose the ideological preconditions, culture, and myths hidden behind the sacred religious texts.

Within this critical NU community, LKiS (Lembaga Kajian Islam dan Sosial/The Institute for Islamic and Social Studies) in Yogyakarta is the most remarkable group. The institute was established at the beginning of the 1990s by progressive figures such as M. Imam Azis, M. Jadul Maula, Nuruddin Amin, and Hairussalim HS, and could be described as the driving force behind NGOs who work actively to study, introduce, and disseminate progressive ideas. Recently, many groups have claimed that LKiS is developing leftist ideas. This claim emerged largely after LKiS published Kazuo Shimogaki's Kiri Islam, Telaah Kritis atas Pemikiran Hassan Hanafi/The Islamic Left, A Critical Study of Hassan Hanafi's Thought in 1993. The book included a copy of Hassan Hanafi's left-wing Islam manifesto (al-Yasar al-Islâmî).

THE LANDSCAPE OF THE ISLAMIC POST-TRADITIONALIST DISCOURSE

Islamic post-traditionalism is still debated, both the term itself and the substance of the concept. The term “post-traditionalism” is uncommon; not only is it not found in the dictionary, the prefix “post” attached to the term “tradition” suggests passing, surpassing, discarding, and abandoning tradition. However, the soul of the movement is actually about transforming and revitalizing tradition, not abandoning it. Meanwhile, the substance and discourse of thought that has developed is often considered unclear and as if to simply emphasize the traditional identity of the educated NU community.

The absence of the term in dictionaries is not a reason to not use the term. Dictionaries are constructions from reality, and thus the absence of a term from the dictionary is not a valid argument to suggest that the phenomenon it describes does not exist. In addition, if we interpret the term “post” as surpassing or abandoning tradition, this is not very satisfactory, because the term “post” also contains an understanding of continuity and change. However, the accusation concerning the substance of the concept does indeed require serious thought. Those who coined the term must be able to prove that post-traditionalism is not just a continuation of the tension between the traditionalists and modernists using more sophisticated and theoretical tools, but is indeed the result of a long struggle of intellectual transformation. This community did not emerge out of the blue, but through an intellectual struggle with quite a deep traditional consciousness — traditional in both the sense of behaviour but also in the sense of a vast wealth of thought.

The emergence of this community can be traced back to when NU declared its return to the Khittah of 1926 in 1984. Besides the various interpretations of the Khittah of 1926, the moment opened up sufficient space for NU members to form a new group oriented more towards intellectual development. Abdurrahman Wahid was the determining force behind this emerging passion of NU intellectualism. Although this led to tension with senior ulama as a result of this group's intellectual “mischief”, the presence of Abdurrahman Wahid with his intellectual capital and blue blood protected this “naughty” or “mischievous” group and eased tension. Nevertheless, in comparison to the number of NU members, this group was very small and often exposed to extraordinary political temptations.

No words suffice but praise to God the Almighty for it was with His help that I was able to complete this dissertation through much hard work. Although the completion of this dissertation took much sweat, time, and money, I am aware that there are many gaps that were unable to be explored. This was a consequence of limitations I faced in being able to examine everything related to the research topic. However, this is not an excuse for any academic errors in this research. I take full responsibility for all the shortcomings in this book.

This work does not represent the end of my academic career, but rather the beginning of a long and more challenging academic journey. Consequently, I accept criticism from readers in order to become a more responsible intellectual.

Although I worked hard to finish this research, I feel indebted, both directly and indirectly, to many; those who helped, who gave motivation, who were discussion partners, who continually asked if my dissertation was finished, and to those who helped collect data in the field. First of all, to my parents. They both worked hard, expending much energy and time to guide me while I obtained my degrees, from undergraduate through to doctoral. In all their simplicity and with all their restrictions, they have always been a light in my life that has never flickered nor died. To my father, who is now in the presence of God (7/1/2005), I hope you are peaceful by His side. Your sacrifice was not in vain.

To my beloved wife, Emmamatul Qudsiyah who wished that I would finish this dissertation quickly in amongst the busyness of making a living. My two children, Affan F. Azka and Najma Fuaida, who have forgone their right to my love and attention, you always give me inspiration.

To my supervisors, Prof. Dr Azyumardi Azra and Dr Bahtiar Effendy, who encouraged me to finish this dissertation, and who were both teachers and discussion friends. Thank you for your advice and input in perfecting this dissertation.

To the management and academic staff at the Bengkulu State Islamic College (STAIN Bengkulu) who permitted me to study while I was still teaching there.