The renewed debate on the racial identity of who should be allowed to hold the prime ministerial position appears to have caused an old but intriguing claim to resurface.

The story goes that, in a brief moment of crisis, Malaysia had not one but two acting prime ministers in the past who were non-Malays.

In one claim that was circulated in blogs, content farms, and even Wikipedia, it was alleged that when Umno was deregistered in February 1988...