He was born on 18 February 1925 in Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan, the son of impoverished villagers from Malacca state who emigrated as pastoral nomads, namely Baba Abdullah from Sungai Udang and his wife, Saodah Salleh from Bemban. Ghafar Baba became a teacher and later became a member of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) political party, which is part of the Barisan Nasional coalition.
In 1943, he married Toh Puan Asmah Binti Alang (1927–2004) and they had twelve children, three of whom he outlived. In the early 1990s, he polygamously married his second wife, Toh Puan Heryati Abdul Rahim, with whom he had one child, only to divorce in 2003.
In 1986, he was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Previously, Musa Hitam held the deputy premiership but he resigned, citing irreconcilable differences with Mahathir.[1] On 15 October 1993, during a UMNO election, he was challenged by Anwar Ibrahim. Ghafar Baba was defeated by Anwar and subsequently lost the deputy premiership.
On 23 April 2006, he died at Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur due to cardiopulmonary complications. He had been in critical condition for several months prior to his death. He was buried the same day in an official state funeral at Makam Pahlawan near Masjid Negara, Kuala Lumpur alongside the graves of former Prime Ministers Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Hussein Onn and former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Ismail.[2][3]
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