Syed Nasir Ismail

Tun Syed Nasir bin Syed Ismail ( ''''; 7 March 1921– 16 March 1982) was a Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia. During his lifetime, he was known as a nationalist who sought to fight for the primacy of the national language in Malaysia as a means to create a national identity through the closing down of public-funded Mandarin and Tamil vernacular schools. Tun Syed Nasir sees a common education system for all as a solution to this dilemma. A prominent politician from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) – the leading party of the governing Barisan Nasional coalition – he served as the 5th Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat from 1978 till his death in 1982.

He was born in Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia, and is of Hadhrami Arab descent. Provided by Wikipedia