Onn Bin Jaafar' (Ic Bin)
(1895–1962), Malaysian politician. As a young man, Jaafar supported a single Malay nation, composed of the territories of present-day Malaysia and Indonesia, though he later distanced himself from that position. Jaafar joined the British colonial civil service and rose to the post of chief minister, the highest office in the local government of a constituent state of Malaysia.
Following World War II, a unified Malay opposition led by Jaafar confronted the British, who expected to reassert their colonial authority. In March 1946, Jaafar convened the All Malaya Congress in Kuala Lumpur. Two hundred delegates, representing fortyone Malay organizations, attended. The congress supported the formation of a single Malay political association, and Jaafar founded the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in May 1946, becoming its president. Jaafar, however, split with UMNO's leadership over the issue of race. Jaafar envisioned UMNO being a multiethnic party that included representatives from the country's Indian and Chinese communities, who made up more than one-third of the population. In 1950, the UMNO membership rejected Jaafar's proposal, opting for the continuation of communal parties based along racial/ethnic lines. In 1951, Jaafar left UMNO and founded the multiethnic Independence of Malaya Party (IMP). The IMP never won a large base of popular support or was able to challenge the UMNO-led coalition's monopoly on power.
Jaafar was succeeded by Tunku Abdul Rahman (1903–1990), who negotiated independence and the establishment of the Federation of Malaya on 31 August 1957, becoming the nation's first prime minister. Jaafar was the father of Tun Hussein bin Dato Onn (1922–1990), who served as Malaysia's third prime minister from 1976 to 1981.
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