first prime minister of independent Malaya (1957–63) and then of Malaysia (1963–70), under whose leadership the newly formed government was stabilized.

After studies in England (1920–31), Abdul Rahman returned to Malaya to enter the Kedah civil service. In 1947 he returned to England, was called to the bar in 1949, and was appointed a deputy public prosecutor in the Malayan Federal Legal Department, a post he resigned in 1951 to begin a political career. He became president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and effected the alliance of UMNO with the Malayan Chinese Association (1951) and with the Malayan Indian Congress (1955). His Alliance Party won an overwhelming majority in the election of 1955, and Abdul Rahman became chief minister and home minister of Malaya.

The mission he led to London (January 1956) to negotiate for independence secured immediate internal self-government and the pledge of independence by August 1957. When Malaya became independent, he became its first prime minister and foreign minister, and he continued in that post when the federation of Malaysia was formed in 1963.

In September 1970, one year after the outbreak of riots between the Chinese and the Malays following an election in which the Chinese had made gains, Abdul Rahman relinquished his post as prime minister and was succeeded by Abdul Razak.