We were lucky that they did not want our land, in the same way they wanted the land of the Native Americans or the Australian Aboriginals.
There is no way they could have taken our land. We're not sparsely populated like those countries were when the British first landed there.
We were lucky that they did not want to plunder our resources, like they did to Africa and the Middle East
For Malaysia, they actually did. They took a lot of silver and precious mining resources while they were here. More importantly they used our citizens for cheap labour (Chinese for mining, Indians to work in the plantations and estates). When you think about it, if it's not for the British, there would be no Chinese or Indians here, no Singapore, and Malaysia would have been just like Indonesia. Is that a good or bad thing? God knows.
Do you think they would have treated us any differently to the Africans and the Arabs? Look how they left Burma..
Agreed. Ever heard of the term "white man's burden"?
I have no particular grudge against the British, and as before, I actually liked Chris Patten. But I do breathe a sigh of relief, in the knowledge that they mostly left us to our own devices. And that we did not have land or resources that they needed, like many of their other colonies did... to their great misfortune.
In Malaysia, they were actually not interested in staying anymore once they left India (supposedly the crown jewel of the British empire), so after WW2, it wasn't a hard task convincing them to leave.
But when I look back at the history of various countries, I have to admit, atleast when it comes to Malaysia, British were one of the better colonizers. Look at South America, their culture is now more of Spanish/Portuguese. While in Malaysia, we're still very much Malays just like our ancestors were.
My great grandparents, who were alive when Japanese took over Malaysia, often remarked on how cruel the invading Japanese army was to the local people (some of the stories are shocking really). I never heard such stories about the British. Till the day they died, they never said anything bad about the British but would often tell horror stories about the Japanese occupation.
Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful the British left, but on the whole, I harbour no ill-feelings to the British. It could have been a lot worse.