MERDEKA! LOOKING BACK AT INDEPENDENCE DAY IN MALAYA, 31 AUGUST 19571

Abstract

This article starts by examining the ceremonies in which the transfer of power from Britain was celebrated and legitimated half a century ago. It discusses Malay traditional rites which accompanied the birth of the nation-state and the rituals which the British devised to cover their retreat from empire. Both sides worked for a cordial hand-over in order to demonstrate to the world that the process was both right and effective. Such a smooth transition, however, suggested that the realities of power had scarcely changed and that the independence of the Federation was severely compromised. In fact, the records show that Malaya advanced to independence much faster than the British had expected and that, notwithstanding their anxieties about Malaya's prospects, they had no practical alternative to falling in with Tunku Abdul Rahman's timetable. 1This is a revised version of a lecture delivered at the international seminar on ‘Britain and the Malay World’ held at the Royal Asiatic Society, 17–18 May 2007. A shorter version was given as a paper to the one-day symposium on ‘Freedoms at Midnight: The Iconography of Independence’ at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, 28 June 2007, whose other papers are published in The Round Table, 97 (398), October 2008.