COMMENT I am happy to have been asked by Malaysiakini to write this article to commemorate the 93rd year of birth of our second prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, with his birthday falling today.

Had Razak not died early, the history of Malaysia, and that of some of its personalities, would have been vastly different. We would be, for sure, less divisive, less orthodox and definitely less uncertain about the future.

This is a dispassionate narrative, which I hope is a good introduction to a leader who rescued and revitalised a nation that was at a nadir in 1969.

It was in 1954 that I was introduced to Razak, who was then the state secretary of Pahang and deputy president of Umno. Then, civil servants could become members of any political party they chose and also hold public office.

I got to know him closely when I became a journalist in 1957. The friendship flourished after I came back from the United States in 1962, following a two-year stint on a Congressional Fellowship.

At age 25, I became Razak’s special officer. Then, in succession, I became his political secretary and deputy minister, chief assistant whip and a member of the Umno Supreme Council until Razak’s premature death of leukemia in London on Jan 14, 1976. He was 53.

I was subsequently detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for five years for what is now admitted to be a settling of old scores to halt my political career. What would become clear to me was the innuendo to discredit Razak's leadership...