Talk to ordinary Malaysians about British colonial rule in Malaya and they are likely to tell you that the colonialists had practised a 'divide-and-rule' policy.

But if you ask Professor Khoo Khay Kim, a Universiti Malaya (UM) historian, he will tell you a different story.

It is untrue that the British had practised a divide-and-rule policy during their presence in Malaya, he declared at a public lecture on Ethnic Relations in Malaya's Plural Society: A Survey from 1400 to 1959 in Kuala Lumpur last night.

Khoo asserted that the meaning of 'divide-and-rule' at that time referred to a kind of separation of ethnicity.

He explained it was only natural that people of the same community were inclined to group among themselves rather than with other races.

"This is the reason why the different races in Malaya were separated, not that the British had divided them," Khoo said.

The historian also noted that the British had always made attempts to absorb the Chinese and Indians into the Malayan system but did not succeed.

Equal partnership

To a question from the floor on whether political parties such as Umno, MCA and MIC were equal partners prior to Independence, Khoo said:

"They were not equal partners. They are never meant to be one."

He explained that the nine Malay Sultanates in Malaya maintained their sovereignty over their states despite the presence of the British, who only existed to assist these rulers in their administration.

He added that after the second world war, the British tried to incorporate the British Settlements of Penang, Melaka and Singapore into the Malay states under the aegis of the Malayan Union.

"However at that time the Chinese and Indians were not ready to become full Malayan citizens for various reasons."

Politics caused problems

Khoo noted that each group concentrated on one particular economic sector - the Malays on food producing, while Chinese and Indian were to focus on tin-mining and rubber estates.

He reiterated that during the early days, there were no communal strife because the Chinese and Indians were small in number.

The trouble started, Khoo said, when politics came in and everyone started fighting for power.

Meantime, he asserted that prior to the formation of Malaysia in 1957, the British were not actually the rulers in Malaya.

They were assisting the Malay rulers at that time. The formation of the Malayan Union set the tone of discontentment against the British because non-Malays were considered British subjects while Malays were under the Malay rulers.

The Malayan Union was seen as a threat to Malay sovereignty. With independence in 1957, the Malay rulers became constitutional monarchs while the people (the executive) were the one with power in running the country. .

Khoo added that the actual meaning of independence was the transmission of sovereignty from the Malay rulers to the people and not to free from the British administration.

"This is because the British had never ruled Malaya," he said.