COMMENT | Merdeka 2018 is momentous.

I hope for the sake of Malaysia, it will be the final time citizens celebrate their national day with the exhilaration of deliverance from an oppressive political yoke still fresh in their minds.

In 1957, the country was set free from British colonialists. There was a similar euphoria.

But the fledgling nation, after deposing the affable first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, was recolonised by a new group of myopic local leaders. The neocolonialists imposed upon the people a yoke heavier than the British yoke.

Fast forward to 2018, and the nation will reverberate once again with freedom and shouts of acclamation on Aug 31.

After May 13, 1969, she was hijacked and subjected to a lifetime of abuse.

Race, closely accompanied by religion, constricted the nation. The nation still forged ahead economically but became tangled in draconian laws and discriminatory policies; was pitifully abused, serially raped and treacherously plundered. Polarisation of the people was purposely planned.

It is treachery of the worst kind when a government betrays the trust of the people, divides and steals from them and tries to get away with deception, conspiracy and lies...