Kuala Lampur, April 2 -- Bizarre to say the least that the 80th anniversary of the Malayan Union yesterday went without mention.

That seminal moment in this country about to start its jog to independence whence neighbours claimed it in a sprint with a sprinkle of gunpowder.

Malayan Union would have rendered Jus Soli the law of the land. Citizenship as a birthright. If you were born in Malaya, by definition you were Malayan.

It would have formalised Malays as a demographic minority in the country.

The genesis of Umno is from there. The genesis of the "us versus them" also was formalised when the Malayan Union was upended.

Umno's vision trumped Putera-AMCJA's People's Constitution recommendations via British complicity, in the form of ...