He was 94.

The son of the Umno veteran, Tengku Farith said his father who was fondly known as “Ku Deen” suffered a stroke two weeks ago and was treated at a private hospital. He had then been discharged.

“But this morning he experienced breathing difficulties before passing away,” he said when contacted by Bernama last night.

Tengku Farith said his father’s remains would be brought to the Federal Territory Mosque at Jalan Duta at 8.30am today for prayers.

He added that it had not been decided yet if his father would be buried at the National Mosque or the Bukit Kiara cemetery.

Apart from being defence minister from 1987 to 1990, Tengku Rithaudeen was also appointed as special functions minister to assist then prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein in the foreign ministry in 1973, and was later appointed information and special functions minister in 1974.

He was then appointed foreign minister (1975), followed by trade and industry minister (1981), reappointed as foreign minister (1984), and information minister (1986).

In 1970, he held the post of deputy defence minister followed by deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in 1972.

In the political arena, the late Tengku Rithauddeen was a member of the party’s Supreme Council in the 1980s and also the Umno disciplinary board chairman in 2001.

The former Kelantan Umno chairman was also made chairman of the Farmers’ Organisation Authority in 1973 apart from being the former president of the United Nations Association of Malaysia (UNAM).

His service in education was as Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) pro chancellor in 1992 while in sports, he served as Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) deputy president in 1988.