Talk:Yusof Ishak

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I have this article i wrote for my school assignment to contribute, however, i am not very familiar with wikipedia's contribution requirements. Therefore, i am posting this here to seek assistance as well as advice...

---Start of Article Biography of Yusof Bin Ishak (Pre-President)

On 12 August 1910, Yusof was born in Perak. His father was a civil servant with the British governor. Yusof’s ancestors were descended from the Minangkabau ethnic group, which originates from West Sumatra.

The Minangkabau was an independent group, believing in the principals of cooperation, democracy and social justice. The Minangs also stresses on the importance of education. Yusof’s father often shares stories from Minang folklore with his children, as well as the principles they live by.

At that time, sultans had considerable political power in Malaya. In contrast to the Minangs, the sultans rule autocratically. Their status was divine, and it is considered treason to go against the wish of a sultan or his nobles. Under the sultan’s feudal system, the sultan is at the top of the social class, followed by nobles, the common people, and lastly the slaves. The common people had to pay high taxes with no means of improving their quality of life, and when they can’t, they are demoted to slaves for the sultans and nobles.

Yusof’s father firmly believes in English education for his child. Yusof attended Victoria bridge school. At Victoria, he was awarded distinctions in the Cambridge exams. When he graduated, and wanted to move on to the Malay College (the top English school for Malays at that time), his application was rejected because he was a commoner, as opposed to the flocks of nobles who attended the college year after year. Instead, Yusof enrolled at Raffles institution, in the Queen’s scholarship class. At Raffles, Yusof for the first time of his life mingled with youths from other races and ethnic groups. It is believed that his belief in multi-racialism was developed there. Yusof also took up leadership posts, becoming a school prefect, and second lieutenant in NCC, in addition, he was co-editor of the Rafflesian.

After graduation from Raffles, his poor father could not afford to send him overseas for further education, Yusof had failed to win the Queen’s scholarship; he therefore enrolled at the Police Academy in Malaya. However, police officer posts were usually reserved for child of nobles. For Yusof, due to his excellent performance in the NCC, he was promised an officer post. Unfortunately, before Yusof could complete his training, he was expelled for treason. Yuosf had confronted a noble-officer on his ill-treatment of his servants. His rejection from the Malay college, and expel from the police academy also affirmed his detest of the Sultan system in Malaya.

Yusof returned to Singapore to start a business, however he failed. After which, he helped his friend to publish the Sportsman, and later took up the post of clerk with the Warta Malaya, a newspaper on Arab business affairs.

Yusof was determined to help the common Malays here improve their living conditions, and stand up for their rights and justice. He also wanted to advocate multi-racialism. With his experience as a clerk in the Warta Malaya, he and his group of like minded friends helped to raised funds for the Utusan Malayu – the newspaper by Malays, for Malays. Yusof traveled throughout Johor and Singapore, getting both rich businessmen, and poor farmers, to purchase shares in the newspaper.

As editor-in-chief of Utusan Melayu, he was a stern and strict boss, though with good leadership, discipline and was thrifty, as commonly agreed among his employees. Utusan Melayu continuously campaigned for social equality and multi-racialism. Though Utusan Malayu campaigned for Malay rights, it never blamed the other races for the economic situation of Malay peasants in Malaya.

“Blaming the other races does not help in any way to uplift the status of the Malays in the country… Blame should fall on the Malay themselves for not using the opportunities that are available, because God had given determination and intelligence to all races in equal measures, and there should be no excuses…” Yusof bin Ishak

During World War II, Yusof stubbornly refused to acknowledge air-raid sirens, for he was determined to continue publications of Utusan Melayu as far as possible. Only when planes were seen passing directly above the look-out-point on the roof of his office, that his employees were allowed to evacuate. For this reason, Utusan Melayu indeed continued to be published, up to the invasion of Singapore.

It was believed that, events in World War II had convinced Yusof that, the British colonist were inadequate to protect Malaya. Utusan Melayu became strongly anti-colonist after the war, when it resumed operations. By 1945, Utusan Melayu had become a key newspaper, in the struggle for freedom, independence and social justice.

During the 1950 Maria Hertogh Incident, the Utusan Melayu remained neutral and objective in its reporting. In contrast, other newspapers became biased and began baseless reporting and accusations, fanning up the tensions within the Malay community. This lead to the banning of numerous newspapers, but Utusan Melayu was spared.

Notably, the office of Utusan Melayu became an important meeting place for many key people who were also campaigning for social justice, multi-racialism and the end of colonialism. An important person Yusof met at his office at such discussions was Lee Kuan Yew.

In 1946, the Malayan Union Scheme was proposed by the British. Under the scheme, the Sultans’ political power would be removed, leaving only power over religious and cultural matters. While Yusof is probably delighted at this proposal, he was worried about the second proposal, where Malaya citizenship rights would be granted to all, regardless of race as long they had resided in Malay for a period of time. Yusof was worried that, granting citizenship to so many non-Malays would upset the Malay community, as it would threaten their political rights. At the same time, a political party by the name of United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) was set-up, to contest the British’s proposals. With the help of the Utusan Melayu, the proposal was defeated. The first president of UMNO wrote a letter to thank Yusof. After negotiation with Malayan leaders, the British withdrew the Malayan union scheme, and replaced it with the Federation of Malaya. The Federation came into existence in 1948. While the issues on Citizenship rights were addressed, Yusof was “horrified” to know that, the political powers of the Sultans were restored. From the point on, the Utusan Melayu became increasingly critical of the UNMO.

The UMNO retaliated by buying over shares in the Utusan, soon, they were in majority control. Yusof was ordered to sack a reporter (Samad Ismail), who had written numerous anti-UMNO articles. Yusof was unwilling to sack his long-time friend Samad, Samd however eventually resigned to join a rival newspaper. Without his long time pal, Samad supporting him, and the UMNO asserting its control in the Utusan, Yusof decided to resigned and retire. He intended to spend his retirement rearing orchid as a living.

In 1959, the PAP won the state election in self-governing Singapore. Lee Kuan Yew, now the leader of the government, invited Yusof to take office as the Head of Public Services Commissions. Shortly after, Yusof was nominated to become the first Yang di Pertuan Negara (Head-of-State) of Singapore. On 3 December 1959 at the Padang, Majulah Singapura was played, the State Flag and State Crest was unveiled, and Yusof was sworn in as the Head-of-State.

Though Yusof was a commoner, he as a Yang di Pertuan Negara, was to be recognised as an equal with the Sultans. The Sultan of Brunei sent a medal to congratulate and mark Yusof as his equal. The Malaya sultans were however less than happy.

Reasons for Yusof’s Appointment as Head of State

Firstly, Yusof was a Malay with strong nationalist credentials and seen as a credible leader among the Malay community, due to his role in the Utusan. Secondly, Yusof was a strong advocate of Multi-racialism. Lastly, Yusof had strong links to Malaya; his brother was a minister in Malaya.

At that time, Lee Kuan Yew needs to dispel Singapore’s image as the “third China”, by installing a non-Chinese as head of state. Being a country with diverse races and cultures, Singapore also needed a leader believing in multi-racialisim. Singapore also needs to build a “Malay” image to secure its merger with Malaya. From Lee Kuan Yew’s meeting with Yusof in the Utusan office, he knew Yusof is one who is upright, courteous, calm, and respectable, one who is definitely suitable to be Singapore’s Head of State.

On the other hand, Yusof had accepted his appointment, because he wanted to prove that the Singapore government was not anti-Malay, though with a Chinese majority. He sees his appointment as a chance to encourage the local Malay community to work hard to claim their rightful and equal place in Singapore.

End of Article ---


 * Thanks for this. Will see how it can be incorporated into the article. Cheers, Jacklee 13:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Singapore never part of Federation of Malaya
Singapore was never part of the Federation of Malaya, which consisted solely of the nine states of what is now called peninsular or west Malaysia. Ishak (which is how is name his written in Singapore) did not 'govern' Singapore, as the post he held was largely ceremonial.

Boffin June 27th 2004 15.58 UTC


 * An editor has changed references to "Federation of Malaya" to "Federation of Malaysia". Cheers, Jacklee 13:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

"Prime minister" parameter in infobox
Hi, an editor has been repeatedly removing the "Prime minister" parameter from the infobox without providing any reason. I am of the view that it is useful for this parameter to remain in the infobox as it provides information on who was the prime minister of Singapore during the President's period of office. If there is some disagreement about this, please discuss the matter here instead of simply removing the parameter. Thanks. Cheers, Jacklee 12:35, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

External links modified
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Jawi script name
As editors have noted, "يوسف اسحاق" is the official script form associated with him. Even the mosque that bears his name  uses that as the official name, as seen in this picture in the small box to the lower left of the mosque here.

However, IP editor 202.156.181.76 has been changing it repeatedly to "يوسف بن إيشاء" based on his/her reasoning that | google translate proves him right. He/she also claimed that | the mosque got the name wrong, and will change it in due course.

He is well beyond 3RRR. I will revert once more and direct him to the talk page. If this does not help, this, and his interesting arguments for his change, is going into ANI. Though considering its an IP editor, a page protect will serve just as well. Zhanzhao (talk) 23:40, 31 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you for moving the discussion to the talk page. Looking through the edit history, the original version was يوسف بن اسحاق inserted by user Egard89 on 8 May 2012 to an (the current article, Yusof Ishak, was created by redirect from Yusof bin Ishak). This was changed to إيشاء by user 222.165.12.103 on . This was changed back to إسحاق by user Dadran1303 on, and the back-and-forth began on .Kbseah (talk) 08:14, 1 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately, Kbseah, the IP editor still refuses to provide reliable sources for his/her changes. I requested for page protection and have made the relevant notifications in the edit warring board about his/her refusal to have a discussion. Lets see how this plays out. Zhanzhao (talk) 13:15, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, since the IP editor puts his faith in Google, I ran Google searches on and  and . The first returns only copies of this article. The second returns 41 hits, while the third returns nearly 300. Largoplazo (talk) 09:39, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Whoops just realized the picture link I provided previously was broken. Its fixed now. You can see the official name clearly at the lower left corner. Zhanzhao (talk) 09:47, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Largoplazo, further more if you click on the "Image" tab on the search links you provided, its the 2nd one, which is what the IP editor is proposing, is the only one out of the 3 that does NOT return any images of Yusoh Ishak..... Zhanzhao (talk) 09:50, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

Unsourced material in infobox
Some information in the infobox does not appear to be properly referenced, or mentioned anywhere else in the article. For example, Kbseah (talk) 13:36, 2 August 2017 (UTC)
 * "Nicknames" - "Father of Malay Nationalism" is listed, but other people, e.g. Abdul Rahim Kajai and Muhammad Eunos bin Abdullah have been given this sobriquet.
 * "Nicknames" - a search for "Father of Meritocracy, Multi-racialism and Modernisation of Singapore" on Google will give this article as the only result
 * "Military service" - this section also appears to be inflated. As far as I can tell, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Volunteer Cadet Corps in 1927, as a student in Raffles Institution, and the next military appointment was in 1963 as Colonel of the Singapore Infantry Regiment, which appears to be an ex-officio post as Yang di-Pertuan Negara. This blog post offers some useful information.
 * I've added citation needed tags for the nicknames (and quite a few other things). You might want to challenge anything else that isn't properly referenced. --YewGotUp (talk) 20:53, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks for tagging the problematic items in the infobox. Although the Manual of Style WP:INFOBOXREF states that references are acceptable in infoboxes, I personally find that it's easier to keep things consistent and verifiable if material in the infobox is already mentioned and properly referenced in the article body. For that reason I would be inclined to remove the "nicknames" entirely. But first the edit-war has to abate... Best, Kbseah (talk) 07:49, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Good to know. It would be great if the contributor added some text in the article body. For now, I am for removing them as well. They can always be added back with the necessary references. --YewGotUp (talk) 11:52, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

List of officiated events
There is a list of "officiated events and opening ceremonies" that I do not find helpful to the article. Should they be removed? --YewGotUp (talk) 18:19, 3 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Remove WP:NOTDIARY, item 4, applies. Largoplazo (talk) 09:20, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I've gone ahead and removed them since there is WP:NOTDIARY consensus. The editor who put them in can cherry-pick the important ones and add them back if they so desire. --YewGotUp (talk) 14:35, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Of course I agree with its removal, but please don't call "one person has responded so far and he agreed with me" a consensus! I mean, there must have been a consensus to create WP:NOTDIARY, but the question here is what's being debated, and my application of WP:NOTDIARY to it is my opinion. Whether it's applicable and dispositive here is what we'd need to have a consensus on, if you were looking to have one before acting. Of course, if you felt, once I brought it to your attention, that WP:NOTDIARY was precisely the applicable guideline, then what you've done is satisfied yourself that because there's a clearly applicable guideline, you don't need to achieve a consensus here after all. Which is fine. Largoplazo (talk) 14:39, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm sorry, the consensus I was referring to was not from this discussion, but how WP:NOTDIARY came about, presumably from similar articles. --YewGotUp (talk) 14:55, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

| Huge chunk of changes by 202.156.181.76

 * 1) He added "Al-Haj" as part of the subjects birth name. As I understand, that designation only applies to people who have completed the Haj pilgrimage, so saying he was born with that name is weird, to say the least.
 * 2) Redundant and repetitive text mention of the wife officiating each and every single event, when the heading of the section already says its officiated by her.
 * 3) No consensus on name change, as per above description on JAwi-script.
 * 4) Removal of citation requests and some sources.
 * 5) Usage of "Inche" in body of text - WP:MOS has clear guidelines on the use of such extra designations in the body text. Zhanzhao (talk) 10:27, 7 August 2017 (UTC)


 * Two more edits with the same changes and re-inclusion of officiated events I removed per WP:NOTDIARY by since the page got semi-protected:  . I'm not very inclined to be baited into another edit war. --YewGotUp (talk) 19:23, 7 August 2017 (UTC)

Proposed removal of section "Personal life"
The section "Personal life" is problematic, and has already been tagged as requiring copy-editing. However, I believe that most of the content should be removed, for the following reasons:
 * Tone is non-neutral and almost hagiographic, e.g. "But Yusof relentlessly walked the ground for hours under the searing heat of the sun, ignoring pain in both his legs, visiting every constituents around the island to soothe their fears"
 * Direct quotations attributed to Yusof Ishak are not found in the citations that they are supposedly supported by
 * The citations that I checked do not even mention Yusof Ishak but only provide general background about particular historical periods or events
 * Similarly, most of the content is an essay-like historical narration, with the character of Yusof Ishak only incidentally tacked on

The bulk of the material was added by editor Rizan (and sockpuppet Alberttt52) throughout 2016 and Jan 2017, before he/she was banned for copyright violations (uploaded images).

What could be retained (and the only parts really relevant to the heading "Personal life") are the statements about his orchid-growing, photography, and pilgrimage to Mecca in 1963, which are supported in the citations.

Should the section be trimmed down as suggested above? Thanks -- Kbseah (talk) 22:15, 9 August 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes. Some of the other facts, if they're worth keeping and can be supported with references, might be better off in the Political Career sub-section. --YewGotUp (talk) 22:58, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Removal of Prefix/Suffix on infobox.
Being BOLD and removing it. Per | the discussion here prefixes and suffixes are discouraged. Especially | here. Even Dr Martin Luther King and Elizabeth II doesn't get the prefix "Dr" and "Queen" in their infoboxes. Zhanzhao (talk) 07:52, 11 August 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20111121-311693/5.html
 * Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.nas.gov.sg/archivesonline/article/yusof-bin-ishak-first-head-of-state
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110602085028/http://www.istana.gov.sg/content/istana/thepresident/formerpresidents/yi.html to http://www.istana.gov.sg/content/istana/thepresident/formerpresidents/yi.html

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Portrait
Can we have a real photo of Yusof bin Ishak? Sgweirdo (talk) 13:04, 28 September 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:22, 18 October 2022 (UTC)
 * Portrait of Yusof Bin Ishak.jpg

Prefix and suffix
Prefixes and suffixes must be added because he is a politician, regarding a topic here, the prefix and suffixes is not added for the queen is because the infobox for royalty does not have such templates. MLK has a honorary prefix. 2400:4050:8841:EE00:41B6:83BB:346:EB7C (talk) 13:29, 5 December 2023 (UTC)