According to media reports, the founder of Umno, Onn Jaafar, has been selected as winner of 'Tokoh Anak Gemilang Malaysia'. The judges' panels attributed this to his contribution to the unity of the Malays and the struggle for and the achievement of independence for Malaya.

If I may select who is the greatest Malaysian so far, without hesitation I, too, wish to vote for Onn Jaafar. To me, his major and undeniable contribution is his leadership quality in anticipating that multi-racial Malaysia required a common and united political platform for us to build our future together - this even before we achieved our independence from the British.

Though he did not succeed in opening up the doors of Umno to all Malayans irrespective of race and religion, he has been described as 'a farsighted leader not of his time'. Perhaps too farsighted for he was forced to leave Umno for his noble ideas. to form other parties.

Onn Jaafar's true love for this diversified land of plenty, his perpetual and deep understanding of the evil of divide-and-rule had driven him to struggle for the cause of a united Malaya.

His foresight as the most brilliant and perhaps greatest forefather of our time coupled with his failure to instill a 'one people one legacy' sentiment should remind us now of what we are lacking in terms of building a nation where all Malaysians are treated equally beyond the boundaries of ethnicity, religion and culture.

In the eyes of Onn Jaafar, all men were brothers and were to be treated equally and fairly in the name of justice with no segregation, insulation or patronage used to divide and rule the people.

Can we imagine if Onn Jaafar were alive today? Would he be very surprised that after 50 years of independence, we are still struggling for unity and heatedly arguing about having 'one people one legacy' against a backdrop of a myriad of grave social issues?