Ghafar Baba

Who was Ghafar Baba?

Tun Abdul Ghafar bin Baba was a Malaysian politician from Melaka and a former Deputy Prime Minister. He was born on February 18, 1925 in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, the son of an impoverished villager. Ghafar Baba became a teacher and later became a member of the United Malays National Organisation political party, which is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition.

In 1942, he married Toh Puan Asmah Binti Alang and fathered twelve children, five of whom have died. In the early 1990s, he married his second wife Heryati Abdul Rahim, and had one child with her.

In 1986, he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister by then Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Previously, Musa Hitam held the deputy premiership but he resigned, citing irreconcilable differences with Mahathir. On October 15, 1993 during UMNO election, he was challenged by Anwar Ibrahim. Ghafar Baba was defeated by Anwar Ibrahim and subsequently lost the deputy premiership.

On April 23, 2006, he died at Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur due to poor heart and lung condition. He had been in critical condition for several months prior to his death. He was buried in an official state funeral at Makam Pahlawan near Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur on the same day alongside the graves of former Prime Ministers Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn and former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail before nightfall.