Nik Ahmad Kamil Nik Mahmud

Nik Ahmad Kamil bin Nik Mahmud (7 July 1909 – 20 December 1977) was a Malaya politician and statesman who served as Malaya's head of government from 1953 to 1964.

Early Life
Nik Ahmad Kamil was born in Kota Bharu in 1909.[2] His father, Nik Mahmud Nik Ismail was the Prime Minister of Malaya ( 1938 - 1942 ). He was educated at Madrasah Muhammadiah, Kota Bharu and Malay College Kuala Kangsar. After studying Arts at the University of Bristol, he obtained his Bachelor of Laws from Lincoln's Inn in 1930. He was called to the Bar that year.He joined the Kelantan civil service under the state government in 1930 and served as State Secretary from 1934 to 1938, succeeding his uncle.In 1938, he was appointed Deputy Menteri Besar and later he succeeded Hassan Mohd Salleh as Menteri Besar in 1942 and held the post until 1949. Nik were refused to joined any party while served as Menteri Besar.

Political career
In 1949, Nik were resign as Menteri Besar after accepted an offer as Malaya Ambassador to United States which he served from 1949 until 1951. Nik later were appointed as Chief Cabinet Secretary concurrently served as Secretary of State of Malaya in Wan Idris cabinet and served from June 1951 until October 1953. Nik were the only independent member of the cabinet.

As Wan Idris's pressure as prime minister were under threat and were added with government political instability, Nik were took position as unofficial deputy prime minister on April 1953 and represent Idris in several international duties. After the government main party the Democratic Party suffered from huge splits,and in the wake of Indonesian Independence Movement on 18 August Wan Idris handed his resignation letter to Yang di-Pertuan Agong on 26 August 1953 Due to the split of Democratic Party, Wan Idris advised the king to appointed Nik Ahmad Kamil in order to avoid any further political crisis with support from the king himself. On 31 August 1953, Nik Ahmad Kamil were appointed as prime minister and were sworn in Istana Negara, Kuala Lumpur.

Prime Minister (1953 - 1964)
Nik first year as prime minister were focus on ended the political turmoil within the country. He himself were not member of dewan rakyat for first 5 months when Ulu Kelantan by-election on 18 January 1954. Th new government were minority but were received support from the members of the dewan rakyat as order from Yang di-Pertuan Agong until 1955 general election. The notable event were happened during this period were the passed of Bumiputera Act 1954. Nik's first cabinet also have the least member post-war government with only consist 8 members including, Sheriff Osman (Minister of Education) and Hj Fuad Hassan (Minister of Interior).

MNP and 1955 election
Prior to 1955 general election, Nik were still not affiliated with any party which he must have in order to stand for the election. He received several offers from other parties but he rejected all of it. On December 1954, while meeting with several youth leaders of Malay Union (MU) in Kuala Lumpur, he were urged by the Union leaders to form a new party which able to attract malay voters as Democratic Party were became multi racial party after 1949 party reform which cost them malay voters especially in rural and village areas. Nik with support from MU were formed Malay National Party (MNP) on 7 February 1955 and held their first congress in Istana Negara as given permission by the king. MU leaders such as Sardon Jubir, Ismail Abdul Rahman and Zainal Abidin Ahmad were the earliest and founder of the party alongside Nik Ahmad Kamil and Muhammad Sheriff Osman. The original MNP membership were consists only malays but were later change that allowed Bumiputera and indigenous member in order to gained support from these race group.

As new party, Nik realize that he need support from rural and village area which were currently dominant by Islamic Union coalition consists of PMIP, NU and Masyumi and he intended to invite one of these party to joined the government. The private meeting between these party were held in Johor Bahru on June 1955 and the result as PMIP agree to absorb into MNP while NU and Masyumi agree to support the government for the incoming election but refused to followed PMIP action. On month before the election, Nik successfully gained support from several small non-malay parties such as Liberal Party, Democratic Party and Borneo Alliance Party. As result from these agreement, Nik party coalition were gained majority seats in dewan rakyat from the 1955 election.

Domestic affairs
After taking office, Nik were hugely focusing on internal affairs and problems which he saw as worsening even since during his time as chief cabinet secretary. At time of his appointment, Malaya were in verge of split between Peninsular Malaya and Nusantara region after the Indonesian Independence Movement, lack of rural development and the cities overpopulated problems. In his first speech in dewan rakyat, Nik vowed to end the national crisis, improved the life of the people, and bring the country into modernization.

In his responded to Indonesian Independence Movement rally, Nik arranged of meeting between the leader of the movement, Sukarno. Sukarno were the former member of dewan rakyat and former vice president of Democratic Party which left the party in 1951 after became delusional of the party's leadership and frustrated with government lacks of development in Nusantara's territories. Nik and Sukarno meeting were held multiple times and both of parties managed to gained agreement which ended the movement rally on 19 March 1954. Nik achievement were saw his approval rating rise up from 54.5% to 73.1%. At the same time, Nik managed to convinced many members of the movement to joined his party to balance the members that represented across the country.

Under his premiership, Nik introducing the New Economic Policy (NEP) as his government economic main policy which he stated were the catalyst of his ideas of "New Malaya". In this policy, Nik announced the Rancangan Malaya, or Malaya Plan which the 5 years plan of domestic and economically policies planned by the government in tackle of the current problems and crisis. In first Malaya Plan, the government allocated substantial resources to agricultural and rural improvement, and was administrated by the Prime Minister's department. A total of 24% of all public expenditure alone was allocated by the Plan to develop agriculture in Malaya, and substantial sums were also made available for infrastructure development. This were the government effort to improved the living of the rural areas and to diversify the country's resources so as not to be too dependent on the economic sector. This plan also saw the creation of Rural & Industrial Development Authority (RIDA) under Rural & Industrial Development Act  and Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) under Land Development Act. The plan also highlighted government plan to upgraded the current facilities and infrastructure into more modern and accommodate for national and international usage.

By 1959, the government successfully improved several areas especially in highly populated areas such as Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru, Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung. In the first session of parliament after election, Nik announced of Second Malaya Plan. While retain several aspect from First Malaya Plan, the second plan including the government plan to provide more social facilities for rural areas, increase employment opportunities, converting rural areas to cities and increase the number of foreign investment into the country. During this time Nik were pushed the government to increasing trade activities, and he travel abroad to promoted the national's interest. The second plan were much focusing the national's goals to have 10% of national growth by the end of Nik's term as prime minister and setup Malaya as productive as other country such as USA, Britain and Japan.

Foreign Affairs
Internationally, in his early years, Nik were refused to support nor committed between world faction as he intended to befriend both United States and Soviet Union that could benefits Malaya's interest in economic and trade. His appointment Sukarno, as foreign minister were hugely helped Malaya gained its prestige and popularity in the world affairs with his strong and charismatic personality. Sukarno travel extensively around the world and represent Malaya in several UN session. Nik also were supported Egypt during Suez Crisis as he stated that Egypt has right to nationalized the canal and its were in accordance with the principles of decolonization that were applied by western powers after World War. His statement were controversial in Britain and a embargo against Malaya were issued for prime minister Anthony Eden but he refused to do so. The Malaya - Anglo relationship were soon recovered under his successor Harold Macmillan.

By end of 50s and early 60s, Malaya became more linier towards western allies and became critical towards China and communism in the wake of Vietnam War. Nik also planned to called for ban all far-left political parties but were received backlash by opposition and some of his cabinet who were sympathy towards China and its allies. Nik decision to support western also were influenced by Malaya's trade and economic relationship with western countries such as US, United Kingdom, France and East Asia like Japan. In middle 1962, Nik announced several "temporary" war camp were opened for military training for allies troops that were involve in the war. These camp mostly were located in the northern Malaya.

Resignation
Nik were much popular within the public and party and by 1964 many prediction that he will stand for the party's leadership election. Nik himself were not rule out for reelection for party's leadership during his press conference in Kuala Lumpur. However few days before the election, Nik were pulled out from the race and which automatically he will resign as party's president and as prime minister of Malaya. In speech in MNP's dinner in Majestic Hotel, Nik stated that " I made the decision based in sake of unity ". In interview with Utusan Malaya in 1973, Nik explained his decision were linked with his pro-western foreign policy which were caused several backlash with his party left-wing member such as Sukarno. His fear that MNP became like Democratic Party in 1953 were caused his sudden decision to pulled out from reelection.

After Nik's decision, the president's seat were contest between Ismail Abdul Rahman and Sukarno with the former won the votes with 60.3% against 39.7% and Ismail were became president-elect and prime minister-elect. Nik handed his resignation letter to Yang Di Pertuan Agong were officially resign after the parliament dissolution on 29 September.

Later Life and death
After his resignation, Nik were consider to stand down from the general election and return to law practice but later changed his mind and stand for the election and won his constituency seat. Nik were refused to accept any cabinet position and were became influential party member and in 1968 he became MNP' s backbencher leader and MNP adviser. In 1969, he became chairman of MNP Disciplinary Committee until 1972 and later were became chairman of MNP Advisory Committee which he held until 1974. Alongside his party's position, in 1971, he was elected Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat. In 1974 he were not recontest for dewan rakyat but during the new parliament session, Nik were nominated as new speaker of dewan rakyat replacing CM Yusof which he gained most votes and on 11 November, he officially sworn in as new Speaker of Dewan Rakyat. He held the position until his sudden death.

On 19 December 1977, during one of the parliamentary session, Nik suffered from heavy heart attack and were rushed to the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital and he were pronounced death on the next morning of 20 December 1977 at age of 68. He were given state funeral and were laying in state at parliament house before were buried in National Mausoleum.