One of the staunchest supporters of Onn was the then mentri besar of Perak, the Datuk Panglima Bukit Gantang Abdul Wahab Toh Muda Abdul Aziz. Perhaps the spirit of Bukit Gantang will remind certain people that history should never be re-written. Hussein re-entered politics in 1968 at the invitation of his brother-in-law Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. He contested the 1969 election and won, subsequently being appointed the minister of education.

In August 1973, Hussein filled the post of deputy prime minister upon the demise of Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman. He was minister of finance between 1974 and 1976, tearfully sworn in as prime minister when Razak died in office in January 1976. The crux of the problem with the learning of history in this country is partisanship. Hishammuddin’s latest view is just another sad addition to the problem, at the expense of a genuine understanding of the contribution of his father and grandfather to the nation, outside of Umno.

A case in point is the Tun Hussein Onn Memorial. Opened in February 2006 after a RM30 million makeover of the old Prime Minister’s Department building in Kuala Lumpur, the memorial failed to deal with the period of Hussein’s life when he fought against Umno.

There was no mention of Hussein’s departure from Umno in 1951 or Hussein’s role in helping the opposition, especially Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s Semangat 46, against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Umno Baru in the late 1980s in the aftermath of Umno’s deregistration.

When Hussein died in May 1990, he was not a member of Umno. Significantly, all Umno presidents — Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein and Dr Mahathir — quit the party in retirement; although the latter is expected to rejoin the party. For Hishammuddin and his supporters, they should remember that a nation is only mature when history is studied in a less partisan way. By Liew Chin Tong in The Malaysian Insider