In his letter [#1] MCP's struggle anti-Malayan [/#] (Dec 18), Yap Yok Foo attempts to refute James Wong Wing On's assertion (in his article [#2] Hammer and sickle not Suqiu tools [/#], Dec 16-17) that the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) waged a true independence struggle against the British colonialists by arguing that:

"Whitehall was on record in the post-WWII years as declaring the end of the Empire concept and starting the Commonwealth, a grouping of self-governing and eventually politically independent nations... In fact, I would venture to say that the continued armed struggle of the MCP (Malayan Communist Party) hindered the march to independence."

On the contrary, if not for the armed independence struggle of CPM and other struggles by bourgeois nationalist forces at the time, Britain would not have been compelled to grant independence to Malaya under a government comprising a coalition of parties that represent the interests of local capitalists from each ethnic community.

Another factor at play during the post-World War II period was the United States which had now emerged as the top dog in the world, having survived with its industry intact, while those of Britain, Europe and Japan lay in tatters, and no doubt the US put pressure on Britain to grant independence to its colonies so that it could penetrate the markets so opened up and today, the evidence is all there for us to see.

Thus, Whitehall granted Malaya a nominal political independence to a group of comprador capitalists who would continue to protect Britain's economic interests in Malaya. Comprador capitalists are local, opportunistic elite who seek to gain by helping the colonialists exploit their own people.

The alternative would have been for the British to have lost everything had CPM succeeded in its struggle.

Likewise in Singapore, though the People's Action Party led by Lee Kuan Yew called itself "socialist", it too was a comprador capitalist. According to a book, What if there had been no Lee Kuan Yew , by Anthony Ooi and Riding the tiger , a comic book version along similar lines, Lee Kuan Yew chose the "socialist" brand for PAP to wean the support of the mainly Chinese-educated working class from CPM to PAP.

In Singapore at the time, there were many national-capitalist and comprador-capitalist parties with words like "labour" and "socialist" in their names.

Incidentally, that's also why the US withdrew its support for the Philippines' dictator, Ferdinand Marcos at the last minute and threw its support behind Corazon Aquino, as support for the Communist Party of the Philippines was growing at the time and the US would have lost everything in the Philippines had the communists come to power.

Under Aquino, the Filipinos won some political rights and freedoms while the US' economic interests and political influence remained intact.

The objective of CPM's struggle went beyond merely gaining independence under comprador capitalist rule or even under bourgeois nationalist rule, but rather to firstly gain true economic independence and to move forward towards socialism under the dictatorship of the working class (proletariat), which is why it continued its struggle after Malaya gained its nominal independence.

There are many reasons why CPM's struggle failed but one possible reason is that this nominal independence took a lot of wind out of its sails.

As for its revolutionary violence, it's quite often necessary, just as it was in the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the American War of Independence, Indonesia's struggle for independence, the Palestinian struggle, Ireland's struggle for independence and so on.

Since nominal independence, British influence and domination of the Malaysian economy has waned, and driven by the need to implement the New Economic Policy, subsequent Malaysian governments have Malaysianised former British interests and made it their own. Furthermore, Malaysia's economy is now dominated by a mix of other economic interests including those of the US and Japan.

However, following the initial euphoria of independence, over 40 year later, we can now see the true colours of these capitalists' real interests: More and more tolled highways built by private consortia with connections to the ruling party, privatisation of healthcare, public utilities, telecommunications, education and so on which benefit only this capitalist class.

Whenever I look at a tolled road, such as the toll plazas being built on the stretch of Jalan Damansara adjacent to Section 17, Petaling Jaya, I see a moribund, parasitic system feeding off the blood and sweat of the people. In the capitalists' eyes, it's a "goldmine" to be able to suck money from captive road users.

You don't find such things under socialism.

As for Mahathir's statement that Suqiu are like the communists - give me a break. Mahathir is just resurrecting the old communist bogey.

Suqiu is no workers' or peasants' organisation. It is a bourgeois organisation, representing the interests of the ethnic-Chinese capitalist and small-capitalist class who feel that their economic interests are limited by the New Economic Policy. That's all.