His father, who wished that Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub be given an Islamic education, attempted to send him to the Aljunied Arabic School in 1939, a decision that was opposed by his mother due to the outbreak of World War II.

[citation needed] Due to financial constraints, Rahman had to leave school in 1947 and worked as an oil-tester for the Sarawak Shell Company in Lutong, earning RM 2 daily.

Rahman contested in the 1963 local council elections of Sarawak but was defeated together with his party members such as Ustaz Abdul Kadir Hassan and Suut Haji Tahir.

[2] Rahman was appointed by Malaysia federal government as senator in Dewan Negara after he lost during the three-tier 1963 Sarawak district council elections.

He made a bold move by changing the medium of instruction for all the schools and higher learning institutions from English to the Malay language.

[2] On 7 July 1970, the University of Malaya Malay Language Association (Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya or PBMUM) and UM Islamic Student Association (Persatuan Mahasiswa Islam UM or PMIUM) went to Tun Abdul Razak's residence to enquire regarding the resignation of Rahman Ya'kub.

Soon after that, Temenggung Jugah, the president of PESAKA, announced his support for the Rahman's coalition government, thus leaving SNAP as the only opposition party in Sarawak.

[5] Abdul Rahman was appointed an executive member of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) on 16 May 1965 during the land bill crisis in Stephen Kalong Ningkan's cabinet.

Similar to UMNO's party structure, PBB adopted four levels of bureaucracy namely General Assembly, Supreme Council, branches, and sub-branches.

Abdul Rahman obtained three legal opinions from the former Attorney general of Australia, a public international law expert from Cambridge University and a former High Court judge to back Sarawak's claims that Sarawak territorial waters was not confined to three-nautical-miles limit for oil royalty.

[16] The federal government decided to appoint Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to negotiate new terms with Abdul Rahman.

In 2010, Abdul Rahman claimed that in a meeting of final decision of oil royalty payments chaired by Tun Tan Siew Sin (Federal Finance Minister) and attended by deputy chief minister of Sarawak Tan Sri Stephen Yong, an agreement of 5% oil royalty was reached without consulting Abdul Rahman.

[2] Communist movement was impaired when Abdul Rahman signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Director of Political Commissioner of Pasukan Rakyat Kalimantan Utara (PARAKU) led by Bong Kee Chok at Sri Aman on 21 October 1973.

[19] In order to safeguard national interests, Abdul Rahman declared that he denounced the slogan "Sarawak for Sarawakians" and replaced it with "Malaysia for Malaysians" a few weeks after he became the chief minister.

[2] Abdul Rahman set up the Sarawak Foundation to provide scholarships and educational loans for the needy students.

[13] Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub was known for using his chief minister power to distribute state resources to his clients.

[2] Abdul Rahman with the help of Malaysian federal government also distributed developmental projects, financial grants, and other handouts to voters in exchange for electoral support.

For example, in 1978 Malaysian general election, seven new developmental projects totalling RM 189.9 million was allocated by federal and state leaders.

Although some conversions are due to genuine belief in Islam, others viewed this as a way to get to political office, employments, or contracts from the government.

For example, after a conversion ceremony of Ibans in Kuching, Abdul Rahman announced that a 40-door longhouse would be built by BINA for the new converts.

However, the secretary general of SUPP, Stephen Yong, who was also the deputy chief minister of Sarawak at that time, was defeated in the election.

In May 1978, a delegation of SUPP leaders led by Stephen Yong tried to persuade the prime minister Hussein Onn to remove Abdul Rahman.

As a result, Abdul Rahman allowed the entry of peninsular-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) into Sarawak in 1978 in order to check the Chinese electoral support towards SUPP.

[2] Abdul Rahman decided not to dissolve the Council Negeri of Sarawak during the 1978 Malaysian general election because he needed to tackle the opposition by the PAJAR party and solve the allocation of state assembly seats after the inclusion of SNAP into the BN coalition.

Sarawak secretary Abang Yusuf Puteh met the prime minister to resolve the allocation issue.

With his failing health, Rahman finally decided to step down from the chief minister post while appointing his nephew and successor Abdul Taib Mahmud on 26 March 1981.

However, Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub retained his influence over the state's principal levers of patronage such as land development permits, government contracts, and timber licenses.

In March 1987, 27 of the 48 state assemblymen suddenly directed their support to Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub while calling Taib Mahmud to resign as a chief minister.

Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub, in return, revealed a list of timber concessions covering 1.6 million hectares held by Taib's clients and family.

[7] Abdul Rahman bin Ya'kub was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Normah Specialist Medical Centre, Kuching in early November 2014 due to health problems.