The first outburst of the need for higher education for the Malays occurred during the Kings’ Council Meeting 1903. A scholar Za’ba wrote about the idea in the ‘Lembaga Melayu’ press in 1917. Thoughts movement, debate and determination by the Malay intellectuals to establish a university that uses the Malay language as the language of instruction in a tertiary institution began in 1923 when Abdul Kadir Adabi, another Malay intellectual, submitted a memorandum suggesting the idea to the Sultan of Kelantan.