COMMENT | Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has wisely declared that “academics can talk about the 3Rs (race, religion, royalty) but not incite hate”.

After more than six decades of scholarly reflection upon these matters so central to Malaysian statehood and national identity, I have reached my own conclusions.

I offer this brief analysis to honour the memory of a great Malaysian, Prof Syed Husin Ali, whose acquaintance I first made in London, at the London School of Economics and Political Science, in 1966.

In short, I have concluded that there are not three but five key “Rs”...