The other day, as I brought a group of Indonesian friends to visit Kuala Lumpur by train, I explained to them that KTM stood for Keretapi Tanah Melayu. They were quite amused by the term Tanah Melayu, hearing it for the first time in their life.

Tanah Melayu was the term Umno leaders insisted as the name of the alternative Federation which replaced the short-lived Malayan Union. At symbolic level, it summarised aptly their nationalist sentiment, that this is a Malay land. Just when and how the name came about?