COMMENT | Sixty-eight years after independence, Malaysia stubbornly refuses to drop the race argument when power is redistributed.

The appointment of Hannah Yeoh as minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) has again triggered familiar anxieties.

Not about governance, accountability, or unchecked development, but about ethnicity and religion. That instinctive response says less about Yeoh than it does about how poorly we understand where power actually lies in Kuala Lumpur.

The federal territories portfolio is not ceremonial. It is one of the most politically volatile briefs in government.

Kuala Lumpur is under...