Teresa Kok

Former DPM Ghafar dies
Malaysiakini
Apr 23, 06 10:09am

Former deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba, 81, passed away this morning at Kuala Lumpur Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre.

Ghafar, who celebrated his birthday only a few days ago, died at 7.35am. His 81st birthday party held at the hospital on Tuesday was attended by many of his political colleagues, including a number top MCA leaders.

The former Umno politician was widely respected within MCA circles for his help to broker peace in the Chinese-based party when it was riven with factional feuds in the 1980s.

Since then, Ghafar’s birthday had become an annual event for MCA.

Ghafar was rushed to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre in Petaling Jaya for chest pains and difficulty in breathing last October.

He was later transferred to the Pantai Medical Centre’s Intensive Care Unit on Oct 12, and then to the National Heart Institute.

Earlier this year, he was moved to Gleneagles. The health conditions of Ghafar, who has been falling in and out of consciousness, took a turn for the worse on Friday.

His funeral will take place at 4.30 this afternoon and the public can pay their last respects to Ghafar after 1pm at Kuala Lumpur’s National Mosque.

Won all nine elections

Ghafar began his career as a teacher in a Malay school in Malacca in 1949. He left teaching and stood for elections in 1955, two years before Merdeka.

Four years later, in 1959, he was appointed chief minister of Malacca, a post which he served for eight years.

His first foray into national politics was in 1968 when he was tabbed as minister without portfolio.

Ghafar served mostly as agriculture minister throughout the 70s and the early 80s.

In 1986, he was made deputy to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad after Musa Hitam abruptly resigned.

Ghafar was a loyal lieutenant to Mahathir during the crisis when Umno leaders Musa and Razaleigh Hamzah sought to dislodge the then prime minister from power.

At the controversial 1987 Umno polls, Ghafar retained his post as the party’s deputy president by overcoming a strong challenge from Musa with a tissue-thin majority of 40 votes.

However, his position as deputy leader was challenged by up-and-coming leader, Anwar Ibrahim, in 1993.

Instead of defending his deputy president post at the Umno elections in that year, he opted to step down from all his party and government positions and retired completely from politics.

Ghafar had the distinction of being the only politician to have contested in nine consecutive general elections since the first election in 1955, and winning all of them.

Divorced young wife

Since he quit politics, Ghafar had a bad run in both his business activities and his personal life.

In 1998, the Kuala Lumpur High Court declared Ghafar bankrupt together with his son Mohamad Tamrin over RM2.4 million owed to businessman Choon Kok Min.

However, the court order was rescinded a month later on the basis that he had already settled the relevant debt.

In 2002, Ghafar’s young second wife D Heryati pleaded guilty for committing khalwat (close proximity) with three Bosnian students from the International Islamic University.

A year later, Herayati and her stepson Tamrin were involved in a fight at home and both lodged police reports against each other.

Ghafar eventually divorced Herayati in 2003 but the couple was involved in a bitter custody battle over their then six-year-old daughter.