Hussein Onn

Hussein Onn (1922–1990) was a Malaysian statesman who served as the country's third prime minister from 1976 to 1981. Born at Johor Bahru, the son of Onn Jaafar, founder of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), he combined a military commission in the British Indian Army with legal training in London before rising through his father's party to the deputy premiership and then the premiership. "Tun", by which he is often styled, is an honorific title, not part of his name. ^{1 2}

Hussein bin Onn was born on 12 February 1922 at Johor Bahru to an aristocratic family. His father, Onn Jaafar, was a pioneer of early Malay nationalism who founded UMNO and served as its inaugural president; his grandfather Jaafar Haji Muhammad was the first Menteri Besar of Johor. Educated at Telok Kurau Primary School in Singapore and English College Johore Bahru, Hussein joined the Johor Military Forces as a cadet in 1940 and was sent to the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun, receiving a commission in the 19th Hyderabad Regiment of the British Indian Army. He served in the Middle Eastern theatre and in military intelligence, and after the war commanded the Johor Bahru Police Depot. Leaving government service, he studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London and was called to the Bar in 1961. ^{1 3}

When his father founded UMNO in 1946, Hussein joined as head of its youth committee, becoming the party's first youth chief in 1949 and its secretary general in 1950. He left UMNO in 1951 to join his father in forming the multiracial Independence of Malaya Party; when the new party failed, he practised law, becoming a partner at Skrine & Co. Urged by Abdul Razak Hussein, he rejoined UMNO in 1968, won a parliamentary seat in 1969, and became Minister of Education in 1970. In 1973 Abdul Razak chose him as deputy prime minister after the death of Ismail Abdul Rahman. ¹

On 15 January 1976, following Abdul Razak's death, Hussein became Malaysia's third prime minister and president of UMNO. His government continued implementing the New Economic Policy, sought to limit the power of state chief ministers by appointing younger men for short terms, and answered the Islamic resurgence among Malays with state dakwah programmes and stronger religious bodies. He chose Mahathir Mohamad as his deputy over more senior figures. After falling ill in late 1980 and undergoing coronary bypass surgery, he announced his retirement, and Mahathir succeeded him on 16 July 1981. ^{1 3}

Hussein died of heart disease on 29 May 1990 at the Seton Medical Center in San Mateo, California, aged sixty-eight, and was laid to rest beside his predecessor Abdul Razak at the Heroes' Mausoleum near the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. He was married to Suhailah Noah; his son Hishammuddin Hussein later became a senior UMNO politician. No source read for this record names a religious school for Hussein Onn, and this record records none. ^{1 2}

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