'Why would I want to stray into the realm of polemics when, as a kid, I had to sing ‘God Save the King', and later ‘God Save the Queen'.'

Merdeka Day: Have we been celebrating a lie?

Mengxiang: Colony or protectorate, who cares? Why would I want to stray into the realm of polemics when, as a kid, I had to sing the national anthem which was ‘God Save the King' and later ‘God Save the Queen'.

Those who resided in the Straits Settlements were said to be British subjects and those elsewhere in the peninsula, subjects of the sultans of the respective states. However, the same currency was shared and the same set of laws as well.

Meranti Kepong: Unless one country has been either a colony or protectorate, it cannot be a member of the British Commonwealth to which allegiance was to the Queen of England.

Whether the extremists denied Malaysia had been or had not been a British colony, why did Malaysia remain as member of the British Commonwealth?

Anonymous_4031: Emergency was declared because the communists wanted to chase out the British with the motive of Independence for Malaya.

Note that Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng was honoured by the British monarch with the Order of the British Empire for fighting side by side with the British soldiers against the Japanese.

The communists then trained their guns at the British soldiers. To clip their wings, the British government granted Independence to the three major races - Malays, Chinese and Indians - represented by Umno, MCA and MIC respectively.

By granting Merdeka to Malaya, the British want to ensure that the communists had no cause to fight for.

Cannon: To what relevance should Malaysians debate whether or not our country had been colonised by the British, when the real oppressor in our midst is Umno.

Our nation today is colonised by Umno. Malaysians should rid our country of the tyranny of Umno and restore what the locusts have eaten. Then, they can rewrite the country's history books to correct the spin, distortions and falsehoods perpetrated by this evil regime.

Black Mamba: The next clarion call of the marginalised Malays should be "Merdeka" from Umno-BN. And we should have a new date for Independence, not Aug 31 or Sept 16, but the date of the next general election when we are completely free from the shackles of BN ala Umno.

Sarawakian_3ff9: As far as the Sabahans and Sarawakians are concerned, we're still being colonised.

In fact, life under the BN government is a lot worse than under the British government then. The country is being run like a Mafia domain - racists, religious lunatics, corrupt politicians and civil servants are allowed to have a free run of the states.

Little difference between colony and protectorate

Anonymous: Whether we call it protectorate or colony, it makes no difference. What is the difference between Straits Settlements (SS) and the Federated (FMS) or Unfederated Malay states (UFMS)? None.

The SS were governed directly by the British as the rulers had ceded these lands to the British Crown.

The FMS and UFMS were governed by the Brits through the sultans of each Malay state. Malaya was then part of the British Empire.

The SS was governed by a governor, while each Malay state by a resident who appointed ‘Orang Putih' district officers. We were all subject and subservient to the Colonial Office in London.

When I first went to school, we sang ‘God Save the King' and later ‘God Save the Queen', and hoisted the Union Jack before the assembly each morning. It was only after Merdeka that we sang ‘Negaraku' and hoisted the Malayan flag.

Whether we call it colony or protectorate is only a matter of structure and system. Do our academicians care to defer?

Blind Freddo: This is so Malaysian. We waste so much time quibbling over words and we waste even more time living in the past.

I've got this sneaking suspicion that Malaysians are incapable of planning for the future because there's been some pretty awful planning decisions and none of the political parties seem to have any thoughts for anything, but the here and now and their own personal well-being.

RAW: The problem with Malaysians (in general) is not that they pay too much attention to details, but rather that they don't.

So it's good that PAS deputy president Mat Sabu's remark on the Bukit Kepong incident has generated this much interest in the history of the nation.

A point of interest that should not be missed is that the Bukit Kepong incident took place in 1950. By that time, irrespective of whether one thinks of the nine protectorate states as colonies or otherwise, the British had already made clear their political intention to colonise all the states on the Malay peninsular.

After 1945, it should be obvious that Malaya was in spirit a colony, even though the British did not achieve in letter their plan to colonise.

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