I hate to be a party-pooper, but as this nation celebrates 50 years of independence, the point has to be made that, as far as genuine equality, democracy and justice are concerned, all that Merdeka really did for Malaysians was to rid them of one kind of merde and dump them in another.

Relieved of the British yoke, the people found themselves the butt of a very bad joke: the imperial predators had replaced themselves with local parasites.

You think I'm kidding or exaggerating? Take a look at the striking similarities between the British and their chosen Barisan Nasional (BN, previously Alliance) successors.

The first and most obvious is their arrogance. Their belief in themselves as a natural elite; as 'leaders' born to the purple and destined if not divinely ordained to lord it over the 'natives' in the case of the British, or the 'kampung' folk' in the case of BN.

Then there's their obsession with titles. Whereas the British make do with one Royal family along with all its regalia, relatives and retainers, Malaysia's manages to maintain 11 of them. And into the bargain, Malaysia surely has more datuks of every description, not to mention datins, tan sris, puan sris, tuns and others, than all the knights, lords, earls, dukes and other assorted big-noters than even Britain can possibly boast.

And in Malaysia as in Britain, if you can't earn a fancy title by serving the country or sucking-up to your superiors, you can always buy yourself one. Witness the recent 'cash for honours' inquiry in the UK and some of the crooks getting around Malaysia as datuks.

Speaking of cash brings us to the subject of greed, in which field BN politicians, officials and their cronies could give even a race as rapacious the British a run for their money. Siphoning-off untold billions of ringgit from the nation's revenues, plantations and natural resources, just as in the good old colonial days, at the expense of the sweating, subservient masses.

The British also considered themselves above manual labour, at least in the colonies, so they imported their workforce into Malaya from India and China. BN has maintained this convenient and economical system, varying it only in preferring to derive its cheap labour from Muslim sources like Indonesia and Bangladesh rather than saddle themselves with more Hindus and Buddhists.

And in case these imports become unwelcome, as some previous ones apparently have, BN has taken the precaution of maintaining or enacting repressive colonial-style laws like the Internal Security Act to enable them to summarily deal with the problem.

Same old, same old

So even if you don't agree, I think you can see why I personally view Merdeka as much a political achievement as a case of more of the same old treatment.

Much has been made of the 'struggle' for independence by Umno and its partners in the Alliance. But it was actually the Communists, trade unions and other parties that did the struggling, after which pretty well all that remained for Umno and its allies to do was turn up to a meeting in London and have the country handed to them on what's often been termed 'a silver platter'.

If you think I'm talking through my Australian hat here, I wouldn't blame you. So let me turn the conversation over to a Malaysian who is far more learned than I'll ever be about the circumstances surrounding Merdeka.

Collin Abraham, in his book ' The Finest Hour ' wrote about how Umno became the chosen post-colonial power: "..the British were instrumental in 'smashing' the more progressive political movements that were desirous of establishing a multiracial Malaysia and instead nurtured and supported a right wing Malay elitist political party that was mainly concerned with protecting their own interests."

And on the subject of the handover: "Indeed, if ever there was this 'silver platter', then, it is the argument of this book that this 'platter' was offered to the Malay ruling class and to other right wing political groups. This must be made clear because, even though Umno did not have the mandate to represent the Malays during the constitutional deliberations for the Federation of Malaysia Agreement with the withdrawal of other Malay parties in the coalition forged to oppose Malayan Union, the British negotiated exclusively with Umno.

"Moreover, in discussions for independence, Umno led the Alliance, itself an association also involving the right-wing MCA and MIC. This scenario of the granting of independence to this group, therefore, must be seen as a follow-through reaction to the ideological thread mentioned above, because it was in the common interest of the British and the Alliance that the colonial structure be maintained as opposed to the introduction of radical egalitarian policies."

See? I wasn't talking total nonsense after all. But in case you'd like a second local opinion, here's an excerpt from the foreword to 'The Finest Hour' by Kota Bharu parliamentarian Zaid Ibrahim: "I believe that we are not capable of being a developed nation imbued with the criteria and achievements associated with being a civilised and modern country if we remain prisoners under faulty political and economic systems instituted since colonial times..

"..I urge all Malaysians who love this country and who want to see progress for our future generation to recognise who our real enemies are. The people who still 'colonise' our minds and our actions are the real enemies. Of course, they are no longer the British, but they have developed the same old strategies. Divide and rule the people, differentiate and classify them, instill fear into them and indoctrinate them with perverse thoughts."

My thoughts exactly. Malaysia may well have achieved its independence from colonisation by foreigners, but a half-century after that happy event, it has yet to enjoy a single day of freedom from the clutches of the increasingly inept, corrupt and arrogant neo-colonial coalition that calls itself BN.

In short, having so long been shot of Britain, it's now high time to get rid of BN.