The small, newly independent multi-racial country of Malaya had defied pundits' predictions that it would go down in flames. The Tunku declared himself "the happiest prime minister in the world, leading the happiest people in the world". The gracious, popular and charming former playboy aristocrat had pulled it off: the post-colonial experiment, Malaya, was a success story for the world. He would-lead his country to defeat a communist insurgency, face down big neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines, and enlarge the country to include Singapore and the vast, resource-rich, former colonial states of British Borneo, Sabah and Sarawak. Then, the bloody race riots of May 13, 1969-a palace coup gone awry?-erupted in Kuala Lumpur and forced the Tunku from power. Among its dramatis personae was Abdullah Ahmad, long-time aide and political secretary to the Tunku's successor, Tun Razak. Two others, the 'ultra' Malays Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Musa Hi tarn, became prime minister and deputy prime minister of Malaysia in 1981. And yet the Tunku granted the author privileged access to himself between 1982 and 1984, the honeymoon years of the vaunted Mahathir-Musa administration. Book jacket.