Tan Sri Mohamad Ghazali Shafie, universally known simply as Ghaz, who died January 24 at 87 in his home in Kuala Lumpur, was one of the last surviving integral players of Malaysia's independence era. But he was neither a Malay aristocrat leader in the early days of UMNO and the independence movement nor a grassroots politician in the style of Mahathir Mohamad or Musa Hitam. Ghaz made a transition from intellectual civil servant to politician but always seemed more at home in the kind of ruthless internal politics of institutions than arousing the passions of the kampongs.