Onn Jaafar

Yang Berhormat Dato' Sir Onn Jaafar SPMJ KBE
Dato' Onn bin Jaafar (right), with sister and Johore State Councillor Che' Azizah binte Jaafar, in 1948.
Born	12 February 1895 Bukit Gambir, Johor, Unfederated Malay States
Died	19 January 1962 Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Children	Hussein Onn

Dato' Sir Onn bin Ja'afar, KBE (born 12 February 1895, Bukit Gambir, Johor, Unfederated Malay States – died 19 January 1962, Johor Bahru, Malaysia) was a Malay politician and a Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) of Johore in Malaysia, then Malaya. He was the founder of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and was also responsible for the social economic welfare of the Malays by setting up the Rural Industrial Development Authority (RIDA). His son was Tun Hussein Onn, the third Prime Minister of Malaysia and his grandson is Hishammuddin Hussein, currently the Minister of Defence in the Malaysian Cabinet. His mother was a Circassian from Turkey.

Early Malay nationalism took root in Johor during the 1920s as Onn Jaafar, whom Sultan Ibrahim had treated as an adopted son, became a journalist and wrote articles on the welfare of the Malays. Some of Onn's articles were critical of Sultan Ibrahim's policies, which led to a strained personal relations with the Sultan. In particular, Sultan Ibrahim expelled Onn from Johor after he published an article in the Sunday Mirror, a Singapore-based English tabloid, which criticised the Sultan's poor treatment of the Johor Military Forces personnel and the welfare of the Orang Asli. Onn became very popular after he continued to cover issues on Malay grievances, and Sultan Ibrahim invited Onn to return to Johor in 1936. Along with his companions, Haji Anwar bin Abdul Malik, Haji Syed Alwi bin Syed Sheikh al-Hadi and Mohamad Noah Omar, they founded the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) as a means to rally the Malays against the Malayan Union, which was perceived as threatening Malay privileges and the position of the Malay rulers. Onn took up the role of UMNO's president on 1 May 1946.