The 3Rs of Malaysian politics refer to Race, Religion and Royalty—three elements which have dominated socio-political discourse in Malaysia since independence on 31 August 1957. In reality, Race, Religion and Royalty have been present in the country’s socio-political landscape since colonial times and have provided rallying cries and justifications in the fight for independence from colonial rule. Malay nationalist forces mobilised around the themes of defending the Malay race from not only British imperialism but also from immigrant communities, of protecting the sanctity of Islam and upholding the integrity of Malay royalty as bastions of what they originally perceived as the bases of Malayan nationhood. Led by Malay elites, however, independence was obtained not on these original expectations, but rather on terms more inclusive of Malaya’s increasingly multi-racial population, whose non-Malay segments acquired citizenship in 1948 under the Federation of Malaya agreement. Many Malay nationalist idealists until today bear grudges against colonial and right-wing Anglicised Malay elites for liberally opening the doors of Malayan citizenship to non-Malays, thus the ethnocentric echoes of Malaysia being Tanah Melayu (Malay land) still arise from time to time in the imaginations of these nationalist Malays.