ABSTRACT
The term now employed by hiStorians to describe the process of imperial dissolution for Britain (as well as the other European imperial powers) is decolonisation. On a superficial level, decolonisation describes a definitive constitutional event marking the transfer of political power from the metropolitan country to the new nation state {120j. As midnight struck on 30 to 31 August 1957, for example, the Union Jack was lowered in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federation of Malaya, and the new flag of the independent state was raised. Later on the morning of 31 August a flamboyant independence cere· mony was held where Briti sh protection over Malaya was fo rmally withdrawn by the Duke of Gloucester (representing the queen), and the new Prime Mini ster of independent Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman-, read out the Proclamation of Independence [189, 3 p. 467J.
