Post-independence colonialism

I spent some years in Australia and later in Canada, a completely different land from one another, very far apart by distance, very different by climate having opposite seasons to one another. One thing in common, both nation was and still part of British colony.

During the colonisation period, British imposed cruel policy towards the native people of the land. “The arrival of the British to Australia in 1788 decimated the Indigenous population through massacres and other violence, introduced diseases and loss of access to land, resources and traditional lifestyles.

As a result of colonisation Aboriginal people were removed from their traditional homelands and relocated to reserves or missions on the fringes of non-Indigenous settlements.”

Towards the end of colonisation era, British adopted a new approach in imposing forced assimilation of the natives into their culture.

Canadian natives, the First Nations suffered a period where, about 150,000 of their youth are removed by force from their communities and housed in residential schools where the students were forced to learn English and adopt Christianity and Canadian customs, and dissociate themselves from the culture and of the natives. The aborigines of Australia suffers similar fate, termed as “stolen generation.”

The impacts of such policy are still in place today. The stories of abuse, physical and psychological torture, sexual exploitation, which results in depression, death either as a result of abuse or by suicide among the victims.

These are detailed out in a number of official reports, publicly available such as this one by Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Looking closer at home, these tendency of the colonials to force their culture towards the colonised communities are present as well, rather in a very subtle ways. Where force may result in backlash, the use of diplomacy and soft powers using a number of different front resulted in a more successful assimilation as compared to the aggressive assimilation policy.

It is a known fact that the schools established during the colonisation era in the then Tanah Melayu are for the privileged section of the communities, namely the royalties, the nobilities and the elites. Those with English education then being given the opportunity to serve the colonial government, some are given scholarships to further their studies in the homeland of the colonials.

The result of these subtle policy is tremendous. From this system, a new generation of natives, that not only speak the language of the colonial master, but also share the mind, the taste, the hobbies and the lifestyle of the Englishman, while maintaining certain aspect of the native identity albeit superficially.

During the period where the nation is seeking for independence, a great number of these English educated elites still believed that the nation are better off under the colonial rules, in awe and respect for the colonial master.

When, the idea of independence became mainstream, with a strong opposition to the Malayan Union in 1946, it is the same group of elites that being crowned as the freedom fighters, the warrior of independence.

The independence are then handed over by the British to those who will continue to preserve the colonial interest.

This is our story. The way we celebrate our 60th independence, by inviting the British veterans is a monument that these English educated natives are still in power, the anglophile is still very much in awe and respect to the former colonial master.

The colonial legacy are still intact.

 

Zaizul Azizi Zaman

Isma Kuantan Member

The post Post-independence colonialism appeared first on Portal Islam dan Melayu.

Sumber