Written by YAM Tunku Zain Al-‘Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz, Founding President of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS).

I’VE just been in India for the very first time on a two-part trip.

The first part was to accompany the Sutra Foundation, for whom last year I was patron of Meniti Cakerawala 2.0 featuring the dancer, Datuk Ramli Ibrahim, in collaboration with the astrophysicist Tan Sri Mazlan Othman, which successfully toured eight cities across Malaysia.

This time, after completing their tour of their Odissi production ‘Radhe! Radhe!’ in New Delhi, Chandigarh and Vadodara for the 11th International Dance & Music Festival hosted by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the Sutra community was in Chennai for the launch of an art exhibition, ‘Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom’.

They kindly invited me as patron of this wonderful display of Odissi-inspired paintings and photographs by artists from Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Kuala Lumpur and Seremban. I gave my first speech in India, lighting a ceremonial candle to launch the event, and “felicitated” (ie ­garlanding flowers or placing a shawl over shoulders) distinguished guests. I will write about these cultural aspects separately.

The second part was the Distinguished Visitors Progra­mme, also hosted by ICCR, which is affiliated with the Indian External Affairs Ministry. They arranged my visits to numerous universities, think tanks and other civil society organisations, as well as government institutions.

Almost every meeting had an educational or public policy angle that will be explored not only from the perspective of strengthening the work of the entities involved, but also improving the bilateral relationship.

It is yet another example of ­successful soft diplomacy which Malaysia would do well to ­emulate. (Over the years I’ve ­participated in similar programmes offered by the governments of France, Australia and Singapore.)

Again, there is so much that could be shared, but Malaysian political commentary has decided the first topic for me.

As an outsider, I was ready to explore the more storied aspects of diversity in this vast country: the North-South divide, faith, ­language, caste and that interplay with class differences; eg, between the scions of former princely states, the well-known industrialists, the Bollywood elite, and the new wealth stereotypically ­propelled by overseas education and some connection with the IT sector.

I thought arriving in Tamil Nadu would provide a smoother entry into India as a Malaysian – it’s the only state with a majority Tamil population, with 90% of the inhabitants speaking Tamil (it’s only 6% for India in general), while in Malaysia there are nearly three million ethnic Tamils. Partly I was right: the thosai (which they romanise to ‘dosa’ (the Malay word for ‘sin’!)) and banana leaf was familiar (but almost always vegetarian only); everywhere I encountered acknowledgements of Malaysian ties to the region; occasionally this was augmented by a historical knowledge of the Chola Empire’s interactions with Srivijaya.

But I was quickly educated on the particular relationship Tamil Nadu has with the Union (what we call ‘Federal’) Government.

Fervent pride in the state’s language and culture – consistently argued locally to be more ancient than the Hindi language and culture dominant in the north of India – alongside a socialist tradition and personality politics (many politicians were film stars) has translated into strong local political parties. These are, by necessity, allied to parties at the union level, but they also have the effect of creating compromises and moderating extremes. Sarawak, of course, came to mind, and whether these sorts of dynamics would become more widespread in Malaysia too.

At the more local level, elections are administered by states, and cities have mayors that are either directly or indirectly elec­ted. The powers of mayors also vary state by state, and I am ­puzzled about the consternation about research into a potentially elected mayor for Kuala Lumpur. There is much we can learn from India in this and so many areas of governance.

“You should be elected!” I told the Kuala Pilah-born mayor of KL when she was appointed as the first woman to the post in 2024. She agreed, knowing rather a lot about cities through her previous post at UN-Habitat. Now she has been replaced, and many KL-ites wonder why.

So there should be a study done, not only on the viability of mayoral elections for KL, but all local government elections, as per the promise of the first prime minister and former Umno president, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who promised in Parliament that once “peace and quietness has returned” following the Confron­tation with Indonesia, “I can assure that [local council] elections will be held”.

This article was featured in The Start, 6 February 2026

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of IDEAS Malaysia. All opinions are the author’s own.