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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2017
Mohamed Tawfik bin Tun Dr Ismail faithfully donated his father's papers to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in March 2005 after being convinced by his old friend, Ambassador Verghese Mathews, that they would be well taken care of there. The then-director of ISEAS, Mr K. Kesavapany, happily embraced the documents, and since then, two books have been published by the Institute, based on these papers.
Newly arrived at ISEAS, I was lucky enough to be chosen to write the biography of the man, based on these papers and a large number of interviews with people who had known him well. These included Singapore's first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and Malaysian billionaire, Robert Kuok. With the able assistance from Tawfik Ismail, the book was done within eighteen months.
The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time (2006) became an instant bestseller when Malaysia's The New Straits Times immediately carried excerpts from it for seven days in a row. Singapore's The Straits Times followed suit soon after, disseminating sections from the book for five days. Malaysian bloggers began discussing the late Deputy Prime Minister's sense of duty and honour following a stimulating book launch on 22 March 2007 at Danga Bay in Johor Bahru. This launch was most ably organized by Karim Raslan Associates, with another former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, gracing the event as the keynote speaker.
WITH THE HELP OF REVIEWERS
What, for me, were very gratifying reviews and discussions appeared in most newspapers, online news outlets, and blog sites in Malaysia and Singapore in the following months. To give readers an idea of how the book was discussed, an academic review by Professor John Funston is included in this present volume, with his kind permission and that of the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, in which it was published.
The Reluctant Politician went on to win in 2008 the Award of Excellence for Best Writing Published in Book Form on Any Aspect of Asia (non-fiction) at that year's Asian Publishing Convention. It was translated into Malay in 2007, and published as Bukan Kerana Pangkat: Tun Dr Ismail dan Masanya (SIRD and ISEAS). A Chinese version is expected to be ready by 2016.
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