Malaysia parties for its 50 years as a nation
AFP    31 Aug, 2007

Malaysia went into party mode Friday to celebrate its 50 years as a nation, staging an extravagant and multicultural display of pomp and ceremony, while appealing for racial unity.
Fighter jets performed aerial acrobatics overhead and helicopters billowed out the colours of the flag as thousands of people, ranging from school children to war veterans, paraded past Kuala Lumpur's Independence Square.
Police said about 60,000 people came out to watch, waving flags and jamming the historic railway station near the square as they jostled for a view. Patriotic songs extolling peace and unity rang out.
"I am very happy and proud," said Saifudin Matsah, 43, a civil servant from Sarawak. "I'm looking forward to another 50 years of celebration."
Performers dressed in the national colours of blue, yellow, white and red led the crowds in song as the parade snaked past local and foreign dignitaries gathered on Independence Square, including Britain's Prince Andrew.
The celebration of independence from Britain, however, comes at a time when Malaysia has been increasingly questioning its identity, a theme picked up by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
At a midnight flag-raising ceremony, which was attended by members of Malaysia's many cultural groups bedecked in Chinese, Malay and Indian costume, Abdullah urged people to be patriotic.
"We always take care of all the races. We respect each other," he told the cheering crowds.
"We must take care of our unity and we must be ready to destroy any threat which may effect our unity."
Car horns hooted through the night in the capital Kuala Lumpur along with shouts of "Merdeka!", the word for independence, but not everyone was in the mood to celebrate.
"The explosion of hope from Merdeka has been followed by disillusionment and disappointment," Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition DAP party, said in a statement.
He highlighted two recent events which have called into question freedom of speech and religion in Malaysia -- a Muslim-majority country with significant Christian, Hindu and Buddhist populations.
In May, the nation's top secular court rejected a woman's bid to be legally recognised as a Christian after renouncing Islam, while earlier this month a man was investigated for sedition after he recorded a video of himself rapping alternative lyrics to the national anthem.