Hussein Onn

Hussein Onn (1922-1990) was a Malaysian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of Malaysia from January 1976 to July 1981. Born in Johor Bahru into a politically prominent Malay family, he was the son of Onn Jaafar, founder of the United Malays National Organisation. He was educated in Johor and at the Indian Military Academy at Dehra Dun, served in the Indian Army during the Second World War, and later worked as an administrator in Johor before reading law at Lincoln's Inn in London, where he was called to the bar in 1960.

He practised law in Kuala Lumpur and entered federal politics in 1969, joining UMNO and winning a seat in parliament in 1974. Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak appointed him Minister of Education and then Deputy Prime Minister, and he succeeded to the premiership when Razak died in office in January 1976.

His five years as prime minister are remembered for an emphasis on national unity, anti-corruption measures, and the steady consolidation of the New Economic Policy aimed at reducing inequality between ethnic communities. He pressed cases against several senior officials and politicians and earned the popular title Bapa Perpaduan, or Father of Unity.

Failing health led him to step down in 1981 in favour of Mahathir Mohamad. He withdrew from active politics in the late 1980s after disagreements with his successor and died in Seattle in October 1990, aged sixty-eight.

The given name Hussein is an Arabic name, a diminutive of Hasan, meaning good or handsome. Used for boys across the Muslim world, it carried him through a measured and respected public life.