What should our federation look like? This question came after the Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim called for Johor to be treated as an equal partner of the federation. This is an important question that should be considered, especially by the critics of Tunku Ismail’s statement. Malaysia’s federal system traces back to the peninsula’s pre-colonial era, comprising distinct Malay states ruled by a sultan. British colonisation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries further solidified these divisions by recognising the states as separate legal entities. Despite British attempts at centralisation in the 1930s, strong objections from the Malay rulers prevented complete consolidation. After World War II, pan-Malaya political organisations emerged. In 1946, the British proposed the Malayan Union (MU), which aimed to centralise administration across British Malaya and grant liberal citizenship rights to all residents, including immigrant Chinese and Indians. However, Malay aristocr...