Aziz was, in fact, the only member of the pre-war Kesatuan Melayu Muda (KMM) to have served in the 1955 and post-Merdeka Cabinets under Tunku Abdul Rahman.
[4] Aziz is of Minangkabau descent from his father's side while his mother is a native of Langkat regency in North Sumatra province of Indonesia.
Another brother was Abdul Rahim Ishak, who served as Singapore's Education and Foreign Affairs Minister before assuming a number of ambassadorial positions.
[8] Upon completing his Senior Cambridge, Aziz joined the colonial service in the Fisheries Department-based initially in Port Dickson in 1936, followed by Kuantan and then Batu Kurau where he was responsible for the northern region.
[9] In Kuantan, his sympathy for the Malay fishermen did not go down well with officials, notably the English district officer, while in Kuala Kurau his immediate boss wanted him to read books on fisheries only and not literary works.
In 1946, he and Abdul Samad Ismail formed Gerakan Angkatan Melayu Sedar (Geram), which was refused registration by the colonial authority.
When the Independence of Malaya Party was formed in 1951 by Onn, Aziz became deputy chairman of the IMP's Kuala Lumpur branch and contested the 1952 elections in Sentul but lost to the Alliance candidate.
In September 1954, Aziz campaigned actively with Tunku in the Terengganu election which was won by the Alliance despite open support for Parti Negara by the British.
Despite official backing for Parti Negara, including from the colonial police force, the Alliance went on to win the first national elections, taking 51 of the 52 seats.
The year 1955 saw a growing rift between Aziz with his Cabinet colleagues, notably the Tunku and Abdul Razak who was overall in charge of rural development.
In his memoirs, Aziz claimed that the 1955 Cabinet was beset with policy differences on various issues, including the replacement of expatriate British officers with Malayans or Malayanisation.
He attempted to defend his Kuala Langat parliamentary seat under the Socialist Front banner but lost by 3,797 votes to his former party colleague Mohd Tahir Abdul Majid.
In 1963, soon after the outbreak of the Konfrontasi between Malaysia and Indonesia, the Alliance government began yet another massive round up of politicians and activists among the opposition under the Internal Security Act.