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When the history of Malaysia comes to be written at a point other than in the tempestuous present, one man will loom large in her first 50 years. More than the political leaders, he will emerge as the glue that held together a nation prescribed and formulated by politics and its leaders.

He had an important role in the formation of Malaya and Malaysia, was the public face of Malaysian diplomacy even after he retired to enter active politics. His legacy is mixed. That is not unexpected since his flaws are as dominant - in instances more so - as his strengths.

He is all but forgotten now, a victim of his brilliance, faults, political miscalculations, his over-reaching ambition, remarkable penchant for attracting immense loyalty and hatred in equal measure, and a prime minister in the final years of his public career who viewed any who second-guessed him as a traitor.

In a nation which hurries to forget the past, the 21 years out of office marks him out as a non-person. Many indeed think Ghazali Shafie is dead. He is not.

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