Malaysia's 50th birthday festivities clouded by worsening race relations

By Vijay Joshi

Picked from Malaysia Today

(AP) - Malaysia marked 50 years of independence Friday with dances and parades, in a colorful show of ethnic unity that belied worsening race relations and growing fears about eroding minority rights.

Smartly dressed Malays, Chinese and Indians danced in a parade at the Merdeka Square, or Freedom Square, where Malaysia's first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman announced independence from Britain on Aug. 31, 1957.

In a midnight speech to about 100,000 Malaysians assembled at Merdeka Square, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the struggle to fulfill the objectives of independence has not been won, despite remarkable economic progress and prosperity for nearly all citizens.

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