Beginning tomorrow, malaysiakini will run a seven-part series on The Tunku Tapes - excerpts from a newly launched book based on the interviews of Malaysia's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman by veteran journalist K Das.

The Tunku Tapes was initially meant to be the authorised biography of one of country's greatest politicians.

However, Das' sudden demise in 1994 put an end to the project. His work would have remained unpublished if not for the efforts of social activist Dr Kua Kia Soong, who with the encouragement of Das' family took the painstaking job of transcribing the tapes.

The tapes contained interviews over a period of months in 1988 - the year which saw the ruling party, Umno in the throes of its worst political crisis and the Malaysian judiciary under unprecedented attack by the government of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The Tunku died two years later.

In the tapes, the Tunku speaks his mind on his political nemesis Mahathir and the personalities of the day, and provides hitherto undisclosed perspectives of a number of historical episodes including the hatchetmen behind the May 13 racial riots of 1969.

The Tunku also speaks about his colourful life from childhood to his retirement

Political events

"Das' fascination with the Tunku had as much to do with the political events he himself had lived through as with the Malaysian political institutions he had seen assaulted and manipulated by the Mahathir administration," said editor Kua.

"For Das, the Tunku stood for tolerance, accommodation and mutual respect. Das associated the Tunku era with the halcyon days of his youth when ethnic relations were much more harmonious, a far cry from the contrived Islamicism and bumiputraism after May 13, 1969."

Das, who was also a poet, served as Far Eastern Economic Review 's bureau chief in Kuala Lumpur in the late 70s and early 80s. He wrote a number of political bestsellers including May Day For Justice , an account of the 1988 sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Malaysia's top judge.

Proceeds from The Tunku Tapes - now available in all major bookstores - will go to human rights group Suaram.