COMMENT We've never been colonised by the British! I've never heard anything so ludicrous. And it's coming from history professors. Not just one, but at least two. Yeah, professors touting hogwash.

Prof Zainal Kling ( right ) first dropped the bombshell when he said several days ago that Malaya was never colonised.

He said it was wrong to say that we were under colonial rule for 400 years, which would mean since 1511 when the Portuguese invaded Malacca.

This would also mean that we were never colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. No kidding?

He said under the British, the Malay states were merely protectorates because the Malay rulers retained their sovereignty. Only Singapore, Malacca and Penang, known as the Straits Settlements, were colonies.

He said Malaya was colonised by the British for only two years, during the Malayan Union period from early 1946 to the end of 1947, and by the Japanese during the Second World War. Wow!

And here's his punch line - it is therefore wrong to say that the police, political leaders and Malay officers before 1957 were subservient to the British.

Ah! That's the main point, isn't it?