the republic and encourage to overthrow the monarchy. However, at that time the majority of Malays supported the traditional institution of the Malay rulers (Monarchies of Malaysia) and Islam as the national ideology; which led to the prominence of United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which fought to uphold the traditional institution of the Malay rulers and the special status of Islam. The national unity issues in Malaysia have also been aggravated with inter-racial tensions, especially between the Malay majority with Chinese and Indian minorities, the main problem that has plagued Malaysian politics up until now. The racial issue and the disagreement on citizenship and privilege issues between Bumiputra and Chinese and Indian Malaysians were the very problems that had caused the separation of Singapore from Malaysia back in the 1960s. By the end of the 1960s, UMNO gained domination in Malaysian politics, while their rival, the advocate of the republic and the union with Greater Indonesia, were stigmatised as leftists, communists or even traitors. In North Borneo, the Brunei royals chose not to follow Sarawak and Sabah in forming Malaysia and remained under British protection until 1984. With both parties kept busy and being occupied in their own problems, taking their own path of national systems, the ideal of a grand union that united the whole so-called Malay race under one great national entity called Greater Malay or Greater Indonesia has finally faded away, ceased to exist and remain irredentist. However, the term "" is still in use today as the national anthem of Indonesia, written in 1924. While the grand union idea ceased to exist and remain irredentist, the influence of the idea continue to live on the psyche of the people. One of the expressed idea is the promotion of the language as an ASEAN language. In 2022, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, proposed the use of Bahasa Melayu (the Malay language) as ASEAN’s second language. Ismail Sabri Yaakob said Malaysia and Indonesia will continue to make efforts to uplift the status of Bahasa Melayu, which may become an ASEAN language one day. The Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) Board of Governors chairman Dr Awang Sariyan said that [the] agreement reached by Malaysia and Indonesia to continue to work together to uplift the status of Bahasa Melayu will increase the chance of making it as the ASEAN and international language, because Bahasa Melayu which has