LEADER 04176nam 22005172 450 001 9910815091903321 005 20201213232510.0 010 $a981-4881-45-7 024 7 $a10.1355/9789814881456 035 $a(CKB)4100000011341639 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC6259469 035 $a(OCoLC)1224156806 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse92975 035 $a(UkCbUP)CR9789814881456 035 $a(DE-B1597)576149 035 $a(DE-B1597)9789814881456 035 $a(OCoLC)1233041628 035 $a(EXLCZ)994100000011341639 100 $a20201028d2020|||| uy| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aAs empires fell $ethe life and times of Lee Hau-Shik, the First Finance Minister of Malaya /$fOoi Kee Beng$b[electronic resource] 210 1$aSingapore :$cISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute,$d2020. 215 $a1 online resource (xvi, 236 pages) $cdigital, PDF file(s) 300 $aTitle from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 08 Dec 2020). 311 $a981-4881-44-9 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 209-220) and index. 327 $aColonial life between the wars -- Times of opportunity -- Political awakening amid global wars -- Finding refuge in India -- Politics in a messy new world -- Moving towards Merdeka -- Epilogue : after 1959. 330 $aTo understand how independence was gained for a politically complex country such as Malaysia, and how its structure took form requires familiarity with the key players involved. More importantly, only by locating these actors within the changing socio-political context in which they specifically lived does their influence both before and after the birth of the country become clear. Having written potent biographies about Malaysian and Singapore leaders such as Ismail Abdul Rahman, the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia who died in 1973, Goh Keng Swee, the economic architect and one of the founding fathers of the Republic of Singapore, and Lim Kit Siang, the unwavering opposition leader of Malaysia, Ooi Kee Beng now tells the story of Lee Hau-Shik, based on the latter's extensive private papers housed at ISEAS Library, Singapore. Born in Hong Kong to a highly prominent family at a time when the Qing Dynasty was falling, Hau-Shik received degrees in Law and Economics in Cambridge and became a successful tin miner in British Malaya and an influential member of Kuala Lumpur's colonial society. After the Second World War, his influence in elite circles in China, Britain and Malaya allowed him to play a key role in the gaining of independence for Malaysia. He was one of the founders of the Malayan Chinese Association, and served as the country's first Minister of Finance. "Ooi Kee Beng's new book on H.S. Lee provides a remarkable picture of an "unlikely politician" who made major contributions to the formation of the early Malayan state. It adds another dimension of study to the formidable task of nation building in a multi-communal society and is an excellent follow-up to his widely praised study of Tun Ismail as the 'reluctant politician'." -- Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore "Set against the global turbulence that marks the birth of modern Malaysia, Ooi Kee Beng has given us a compelling account of Sir Henry Lee Hau Shik's personal life and political career, his role in the move to independence and the indelible imprint he left on the country's history. In highlighting and contextualizing H.S. Lee's own papers, As Empires Fell should be read by all those interested in how Malaysia came to be." -- Barbara Watson Andaya, University of Hawaii 606 $aPoliticians$zMalaysia$vBiography 606 $aBusinessmen$zMalaysia$vBiography 607 $aMalaya$xHistory$y20th century 615 0$aPoliticians 615 0$aBusinessmen 676 $a959.505092 700 $aOoi$b Kee Beng$01121203 712 02$aISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 801 0$bUkCbUP 801 1$bUkCbUP 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910815091903321 996 $aAs empires fell$94103205 997 $aUNINA