Ghazali Shafie

Early this year we had to witnessed the departure of King Ghaz, originated from Kuala Lipis.

The former minister of home affairs, Tun Muhammad Ghazali Shafie passed away in January 2010. He was known as a person very strict and firm with his work and among his friends, he was known as 'King Ghaz'.

He had served under four prime minister,starting from Tunku Abdul Rahman to the era Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He was also act as the Foreign Minister and had joined a number of foreign services and international missions.

If you still remember, that Muhammad Ghazali was the only survivor in the light aircraft accidents that crashed at Kampung Janda Baik on 10 Jan 1982. The accident had killed his guard and the pilot of the airplane.

HHe was born at Kuala Lipis on 22 Mac 1922 and had his early education at Malay School in Raub and then attended the Clifford School, Kuala Lipis from 1939 to 1940.

Pada 1941, he further his education at Raffles College Singapura then to London for his LLB at University College of Wales. His further education was in the international studies at London School of Economics in 1954.

In 1941 to 1946, he was working at various position in the self defense force and the volunteer against the Japanese occupation.

Muhammad Ghazali has work as a clerk in Selangor and later appointed as the High Commissioner of Malaya to India in 1957. He was then the Secretary for Foreign Ministry in 1959 and became the Minister in July 1981 to July 1984.

One of his important assignment was, he was one of the member of the Cobbold Commission in the formation of Malaysia.

He contributed in the formation of rukun negara, a principle to strengthen the racial hormony in Malaysia following the black event of 13 May 1969.

He had been in the Malaysian Cabinet for long time, in 1970 he was a minister with special function and then the Information Minister in 1972.

About 16 months later he was the Home Affairs Minister until 1981, when he became the Foreign Minister .

He resigned from the in Julai 1984 and then focused hs attention onto other areas, where he hold important position in the provate sector and international organisation.

He was the Chairman of Peremba, Chairman of Landmarks Holdings Bhd, Advisor to Rolls-Royce Asia Pacific and Chairman to Westmont Bank Manila, Filipina.

In politic, he became a member of UMNO Council, The Member of Parliament for Lipis, Division Head of Umno Lipis, Member of Veteran Umno. He was the Vice President of Umno in 1972 to 1975.

House Near The Station

Whenever I go back to Lipis, I will pass near his house, next to the police station. His house is on the left and the station is on the right. Now with the development, the house is gone.

Defying Death.

The older generation will remember, how close to death he must had gone through. He was on his way to Kuala Lipis by a small propeller aircraft.

On Jan 1982, Ghazali was in a Cessna with 2 more people. The aircraft crashed in the jungle near Janda Baik. Ghazali survived but the other 2 were unlucky. More.. reading on this web..

'King Ghaz', Vergis and that Cessna crash | New Straits Times ...

14 Jan 2007 ... But foreign minister Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie, then 59, ... Johor, when they were first informed of the missing aircraft by police. ...
findarticles.com/p/news-articles/new-straits.../ai_n44347890/ - Cached

Fighting The terrorists

I do not think any of the present ministers has such a rich variety of experience like Ghazali shafie. This is the story of his involvement against the Japanese Red Army.

1. MY FLIGHT OF TERROR | New Straits Times Newspaper | Find Articles ...

   23 Oct 2005 ... been moved to Home Affairs, where the mercurial Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie. was minister. Osman had joined Ghazali, now Tun, at the AIA building ...
   findarticles.com/p/news-articles/new-straits.../ai_n44306269/ - Cached