Tunku ’Abidin imagines himself to be primarily a writer. Educated at the Kuala Lumpur Alice Smith School, Marlborough College and the London School of Economics and Political Science, he worked in London-based think tanks as well as the Houses of Parliament before moving to Washington DC to join the World Bank as a Public Sector Consultant. Upon returning to Kuala Lumpur in 2008, Tunku ’Abidin worked at the United Nations Development Programme and the KRA Group. He then worked as a Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore and subsequently a Fellow at the CIMB ASEAN Research Institute. Throughout this time he wrote his weekly column in the Malaysian press and served as Founding President of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs which was born in London in 2006, registered in Kuala Lumpur in 2010 and declared at the United Nations as the 13th best new think tank in the world in 2012.
Tunku ’Abidin enjoys music and is the Patron of the Society of Malaysian Contemporary Composers, the Penang Symphony & Junior Orchestras and the Clap N Tap Children’s Orchestra, having led a major project to revitalise the Negeri Sembilan State Anthem in 2010. He is a Trustee of Yayasan Munarah (the royal foundation) and Yayasan Chow Kit, and is an Honorary Major in the Malaysian Territorial Army.
In these various roles he has been asked to speak at schools, universities and other institutions of learning and been interviewed for numerous television programmes, magazines and newspaper features.