Sejarah Tanah Melayu & Kemerdekaan Tanah Melayu

Pada 31 Ogos 1957, Tanah Melayu telah mencipta sejarah apabila Tunku Abdul Rahman (Perdana Menteri Pertama Malaya) mengisytiharkan kemerdekaan Malaya dengan tujuh teriakan "Merdeka"pada hari yang bersejarah itu.

Penjajahan Malaya bermula apabila pada tahun 1509, Diego Lopez de Sequiera dengan 18 buah kapal dari Angkatan diRaja Portugal tiba di Melaka. Oleh kerana orang-orang Portugis membuat kacau di Melaka seperti mengusik gadis-gadis dan mencuri, disamping perselisihan faham, Sultan Mahmud Shah kemudiannya mengarahkan supaya orang-orang Portugis dihalau dari Melaka. Angkatan Portugis diserang dan 20 anak kapalnya ditahan. Tetapi orang-orang portugis membalas dengan menyerang Melaka. Melaka gagal bertahan dan jatuh ketangan Portugis. Dari itulah bermulanya penjajahan di Tanah Melayu.

Selepas Portugis, Tanah Melayu dijajah pula oleh British. British menjajah Tanah Melayu bermula dengan campur tangan british dalam hal ehwal Tanah Melayu. Campur tangan British dalam hal ehwal negeri-negeri Melayu telah membawa kepada pemindahan kuasa pentadbiran daripada Raja-Raja Melayu kepada pegawai-pegawai yang dilantik oleh pihak British untuk mentadbir dan menguruskan semua aspek pentadbiran negeri-negeri Melayu kecuali pengurusan agama Islam dan juga adat resam orang-orang Melayu.

Campur tangan ini kemudiannya membawa kepada penjajahan sepenuhnya negeri-negeri Melayu di bawah penguasaan British. Peneyrahan kuasa ini dibuat secara rela oleh Raja-Raja Melayu dengan hanya mendapat janji-janji palsu dan pemberian pencen kecil yang diberikan oleh Kerajaan British.

8 Disember 1941 semasa Perang Dunia II. Penjajahan Jepun bermula walaupun merupakan satu turutan pertempuran yang singkat tetapi sengit dan merupakan satu detik perubahan antara pemerintahan daripada orang putih (British) kepada pemerintah Jepun. Ini merupakan konsep baru yang tidak pernah terlintas dalam pemikiran orang-orang Melayu umum, pemerintahan oleh bangsa lain selain daripada mereka yang berkulit putih, sebelum ini.

PARTI KOMUNIS MELAYA

Parti Komunis Malaya yang ditubuhkan pada 20 April 1930 telah bekerjasama dengan pihak British untuk menentang Jepun melalui Tentera Anti-Jepun Rakyat Tanah Melayu (MPAJA) berdasarkan perjanjian yang dibuat pada 8 Disember 1940.

Menerusi MPAJA, bantuan senjata, latihan, kewangan, bekalan lojistik dan perubatan telah diperolehi dari British. Dalam tempoh 3 tahun kekuatan tentera MPAJA dianggarkan sebanyak 7,000 anggota dan tidak hairanlah apabila darurat berlaku pihak British dan anggota pasukan keselamatan terpaksa berhadapan dengan kesukaran menghapuskan sekumpulan tentera yang telah dilatih untuk berperang.

Selepas Jepun menyerah kalah, Parti Komunis Malaya telah mengambil kesempatan untuk berkuasa menerusi gerila-gerila MPAJA. Beberapa siri keganasan dan rusuhan serta pergaduhan antara kaum telah berlaku di Tanah Melayu, terutamanya di bahagian selatan Tanah Melayu. Akibatnya, orang-orang Melayu mulai bertindak-balas terhadap kekejaman anggota komunis Bintang Tiga, seperti pasukan yang diketuai oleh Panglima Salleh Selempang Merah. Kembalinya British dengan pentadbiran tenteranya (BMA) dalam tempoh yang singkat menyebabkan komunis Bintang Tiga tidak berjaya mengembangkan pengaruh mereka. Akibat kegagalan komunis Bintang Tiga merampas Tanah Melayu dengan gerakan bersenjata, telah membawa kepada persetujuan pembubaran tentera MPAJA dan perletakan senjata api disamping pembayaran saguhati kepada gerila-gerila terbabit.

Bagi meraih simpati, mengindoktrinasi fahaman komunis dan mendapatkan sokongan orang-orang Melayu, pihak Parti Komunis Malaya telah mengasaskan Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) yang diasaskan oleh Ahmad Boestamam berfahaman kebangsaan dan Mokhtaruddin Lasso (MPAJA) berfahaman komunis pada 17 Oktober 1945. Parti Komunis Malaya telah menguasai Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya melalui tokoh-tokoh jawatankuasanya yang terdiri daripada Mokhtaruddin Lasso (Presiden), Arshad Ashaari (bendahari), Rashid Maidin, Abdullah C.D. Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya lebih cenderung bagi Tanah Melayu menyertai Indonesia bagi mendapat kemerdekaan pada 1949.

Terbentuknya Persekutuan Tanah Melayu pada 1 Februari 1948 merupakan kekalahan kepada Parti Komunis Malaya kerana golongan ini telah diketepikan oleh British. Parti Komunis Malaya telah menukar strategi dan mula mencetuskan kegagasan melalui mogok dan rusuhan. Pihak British bertindak balas dengan mengharamkan pemimpin politik daripada mengetuai kesatuan pekerja, dengan itu melemahkan kedudukan komunis Bintang Tiga.

Pihak komunis Bintang Tiga kemudiannya mulai mengangkat senjata dan beberapa siri serangan dan serangan telah berlaku. Bagaimana pun, insiden pada 16 Jun 1948 iaitu pembunuhan tiga orang pengurus estet berbangsa Eropah di Sungai Siput, Perak telah membawa kepada pengistiharan darurat oleh Sir Edward Gent. Apabila keadaan bertambah teruk, pada 12 Julai 1948, darurat diistiharkan ke seluruh negara. Parti Komunis Malaya telah diharamkan pada 23 Julai 1948. Seluruh angkatan bersenjata telah digerakkan termasuk Senoi Praaq bagi menentang komunis.

Akibat kesukaran dan kekurangan sokongan dari masyarakat, pemimpin Parti Komunis Malaya, Chin Peng telah meminta perundingan diadakan pada tahun 1955. Rundingan Baling ini yang diadakan pada 28-29 Disember 1955 tidak membawa apa-apa keputusan drastik. Ini disebabkan kerajaan menawarkan pengampunan dengan syarat Parti Komunis Malaya dibubarkan, tetapi Chin Peng pula meminta Parti Komunis Malaya dibenarkan untuk bergerak sebagai sebuah parti politik. Pihak kerajaan yang telahpun mencapai kemajuan dalam membasmikan Parti Komunis Malaya, dan menimbangkan kekejaman Parti Komunis Malaya terhadap rakyat sebelumnya, menolak usul membenarkan Parti Komunis Malaya dibenarkan bergerak sebagai sebuah parti politik. Tunku kemudiannya menegaskan kepada rakyat bahawa Parti Komunis Malaya bertindak menentang kerajaan sah yang telah dipilih rakyat dan merdeka daripada penjajahan British.

Tanah Melayu mencapai kemerdekaan pada 31 Ogos 1957 ketika darurat masih lagi berkuatkuasa. Pada 31 Julai 1960, darurat ditamatkan setelah ancaman komunis semakin berkurangan dan pengunduran mereka ke sempadan Tanah Melayu dan Thailand. Penempatan baru komunis di sempadan telah membolehkan mereka mengumpul dan memulihkan kekuatannya.

Selepas sekian lama dan atas kesedaran pucuk pimpinan Parti Komunis Malaya, maka pada 2 Disember 1989, Perjanjian Damai (Perjanjian Haadyai) telah ditandatangani di antara Parti Komunis Malaya dengan Kerajaan Malaysia dan Kerajaan Thailand. Perjanjian bersejarah itu telah menamatkan perjuangan bersenjata Parti Komunis Malaya selama 41 tahun dan mengembalikan taat setianya kepada Yang DiPertuan Agung dan patuh kepada Perlembagaan dan undang-undang negara.

Tanah Melayu sekali lagi dijajah oleh British,Edward Gent Penolong Setiausaha Rendah Tetap bagi Tanah Jajahan British telah mengumumkan cadangan penubuhan Malayan union. buat pertama kali di Parlimen United Kingdom pada Januari 1944. Wilayah-wilayah Borneo juga dimasukkan dalam rancangan yang asal tetapi pemasukan itu kemudian dikeluarkan daripada cadangan yang terakhir kerana merumitkan cadangan Union yang sudah cukup susah. Pada musim bunga 1944, Pejabat Kolonial menjemput Sir Harold MacMichael, untuk pergi ke Tanah Melayu untuk mendapatkan tandatangan daripda raja-raja Melayu. Sir Harold Macmicheal bukanlah seorang yang arif tentang Tanah Melayu, beliau tidak pernah berkhidmat di Tanah Melayu. Tetapi kerajaan British yang kerap menerima maklumat salah mengenai Tanah Melayu dan orang Melayu percaya bahawa Sir MacMicheal pernah berkenalan baik dengan beberapa putera-putera dari Tanah Melayu. Pada 3 September 1945, ketika pihak British sedang menjalani pendudukan semula di Tanah Melayu, Kabinet British memberikan kebenaran untuk dasar Tanah Melayu yang baru dan bersetuju dengan misi MacMichael.

Memperoleh tandatangan daripada sultan-sultan tidak sebegitu susah seperti yang dijangka. Mac Michael telah bertindak memaksakan sultan-sultan Melayu untuk menerima cadangan-cadangan pihak British dan tidak memberikan masa untuk baginda-baginda berunding dengan majlis masing-masing, malah Sultan yang enggan menandatangani perjanjian tersebut diugut akan digantikan dengan sultan yang lain di atas tuduhan bekerjasama dengan Jepun semasa Perang Dunia II. Pada 21 Disember, setiap Sultan atau Pemangku Raja telah memeterai perjanjian yang baru dengan Sir Harold MacMicheal. Bagaimanapun, sebilangan daripada sultan-sultan itu menyatakan keraguan terhadap syarat-syarat perjanjian itu, tetapi disebabkan oleh ugutan yang mendakwa pe baginda-baginda sultan memainkan peranan semasa pendudukan Jepun di Tanah Melayu telah memaksa sultan-sultan itu untuk merelakan Malayan Union untuk menunjukkan kesetiaan mereka kepada pihak British dan mereka juga bimbang akan kehilangan tahta. Tanpa disedari oleh sultan-sultan ini ialah semua perjanjian terdahulu yang mengakui hak kedaulatan sultan-sultan Melayu dimansuhkan. Dengan itu, kepura-puraan pihak British bahawa mereka ingin membantu sultan-sultan Melayu untuk memerintah dihapuskan.

Setelah menerima perjanjian-perjanjian itu, pihak British mendedahkan rancangan Malayan Union dalam suatu Kertas Putih pada akhir bulan Januari 1946.

MALAYAN UNION

Rancangan Malayan Union yang akan melibatkan Negeri-Negeri Selat, tetapi tidak termasuk Singapura, akan terdiri daripada Majlis Perundangan dan Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan yang diketuai oleh seorang Gabenor British. Sultan-sultan Melayu masih akan mengekalkan kedudukan masing-masing tetapi dalam bidang kuasa yang sangat terhad, iaitu berkaitan tentang agama Islam dan adat Istiadat orang Melayu sahaja. Sebaliknya pihak British akan terus memerintah melalui sebuah majlis penasihat yang diluluskan oleh gabenor Malayan Union. Kerajaan Malayan Union akan mengambil alih semua aset negeri-negeri Melayu, kecuali aset yang berkaitan dengan agama Islam dan harta peribadi sultan-sultan. Di Pulau Pinang dan Melaka yang tidak mempunyai sultan, Pesuruhjaya Residen akan menjadi ketua pentadbiran. Beliau diberi banyak kuasa dan hanya bertanggungjawab kepada Gabenor. Ini sekaligus menunjukan kedaulatan British di Tanah Melayu. Di mana pihak British bertindak mengawal semua perkara mengenai Tanah Melayu. Dan mereka lebih berkuasa berbanding sebelum pendudukan Jepun.

Skim Malayan Union juga mencadangkan undang-undang baru yang memberikan kewarganegaraan kepada semua orang yang dilahirkan di Tanah Melayu dan Singapura, serta pendatang yang tinggal di sana selama sekurang-kurang 10 tahun daripada 15 tahun sebelum 15 Februari 1942. Semua warganegara Malayan Union yang baru itu akan mempunyai hak-hak yang sama, termasuk penerimaan masuk untuk perkhidmatan awam. Akhir sekali, kewarganegaran Tanah Melayu diberikan kepada semua tanpa diskriminasi ras dan kepercayaan atau pun turut dikenali sebagai 'jus soli'.

Gerak balas daripada kaum Melayu

Bertentangan dengan jangkaan British, penduduk Melayu, yang biasanya bersikap lemah lembut dan sering boleh di arah untuk melakukan itu dan ini telah bangun bersama-sama untuk membantah skim yang baru itu. Komuniti Cina dan India juga tidak ghairah dan telah mengkritik sesetengah peruntukan yang terdapat di dalam kertas putih Malayan Union. Pemimpin-pemimpin Melayu dan pesara-pesara British daripada Perkhidmatan Awam di Tanah Melayu telah mengetuai bidasan terhadap rancangan Malayan Union, dan membidas MacMichael kerana menggunakan 'ugutan' untuk memperolehi persetujuan daripada sultan-sultan Melayu. Pegawai-pegawai ini bertindak meLobi Tanah Melayu di Parlimen antara bekas pegawai-pegawai Perkhidmatan Awam Tanah Melayu yang mengambil bahagian adalah Frank Swettenham, George Maxwell, R. O. W. Winstedt, Cecil Clementi dan Laurence Guillemard. Mereka turut menulis surat-surat kepada akhbar nasional dan untuk merayu kepada Perdana Menteri United Kingdom agar menghentikan usaha menukar status Tanah Melayu daripada negeri naungan kepada tanah jajahan. Kegiatan seumpama ini mewujudkan tanggapan bahawa terdapat tentangan yang hebat terhadap Malayan Union bukan sahaja daripada penduduk Tanah Melayu malahan daripada pegawai dalaman British sendiri.

Sultan-sultan Tanah Melayu juga telah terpengaruh oleh perasaan anti Malayan Union yang dianjurkan oleh pegawai-pegawai Melayu dan rakyat Melayu. ini mengheret baginda sultan untuk membantah secara terbuka terhadap cara yang digunakan oleh MacMichael untuk memperoleh tandatangan baginda-baginda untuk perjanjian baru itu. Sultan-sultan tersebut menolak rancangan Malayan Union dan cadangan untuk menghantar sutu perwakilan ke London untuk memansuhkan rancangan itu telah disuarakan. Bagaimanapun, sudut pandangan orang Melayu disampaikan dengan lebih berkesan selepas penubuhan UMNO atau PEKEMBAR yang telah muncul untuk menyuarakan bantahan Melayu terhadap Malayan Union.

Pihak British sangat terperanjat dengan perubahan sikap masyarakat Melayu. Selepas pendudukan Jepun orang-orang Melayu telah sedar bahawa pihak British tidaklah sekuat yang di sangka, ditambah pula oleh semangat untuk merdeka yang bertiup kencang dari tanah seberang (indonesia). Di atas kesedaran inilah Orang-orang Melayu telah bangun bersama-sama untuk menentang cadangan pihak British. Tindakan yang kemas telah dilancarkan melalui UMNO. Negeri-negeri Melayu yang selama ini terpisah dan tidak bersatu telah bangun bersama-sama, malahan sultan-sultan negeri-negeri Melayu juga turut bersama-sama bergabung dengan rakyat Melayu untuk menentang Malayan Union. Satu perkara yang tidak pernah terjadi di Tanah Melayu sebelumnya.

Perjuangan orang-orang Melayu tidak terhenti setakat itu sahaja, orang Melayu turut mengadakan ceramah-ceramah umum di seluruh semenanjung untuk menyedarkan masyarakat Melayu di kampung-kampung. Selepas menerima tekanan yang begitu kuat, pihak British yang masih ingin meneruskan Malayan Union mencadangkan satu jawatankuasa dihantar untuk melihat reaksi masyarakat Melayu. Ahli jawatankuasa tersebut telah terkejut melihat reaksi yang amat kuat dari orang melayu untuk menghentikan Malayan Union. di mana sahaja mereka pergi pasti disambut dengan ribuan umat melayu dengan slogan-slogan anti Malayan Union. Malahan mereka dan Gabenor Malayan Union ketika itu turut bersimpati dengan orang-orang Melayu. Pada akhir lawatan tersebut, ahli jawatankuasa terbabit telah mengambarkan sesuatu yang positif di dalam ucapan mereka. Ramai orang melayu dan UMNO sendiri yakin bahawa Malayan Union akan berkubur.

Penubuhan UMNO

Pada 1 Mac 1946, sebuah Kongres Melayu Seluruh Tanah Melayu (Pan-Malayan Malay Congress) diadakan di di Kelab Sultan Suleiman, Kuala Lumpur. Disertai oleh kira-kira 200 orang wakil Melayu daripada 41 buah persatuan, kongres itu membincangkan pembentukan gerakan nasional Melayu, serta kempen terselaras untuk menentang Malayan Union. Sebuah jawatankuasa dilantik untuk mendraf perlembagaan untuk penubuhan Pertubuhan Kebangsaan Melayu Bersatu (UMNO).

Pada 1 Mei 1946, Kongres Melayu Seluruh Tanah Melayu Ke-2 diadakan di Johor Bahru. Dalam kongres itu, pembentukan UMNO diisytiharkan dan Dato Onn Jaafar, Menteri Besar Johor, dipilih sebagai Presiden pertama. Kongres itu juga mengisytiharkan bahawa perjanjian-perjanjian MacMichael tidak sah dan mendesak bahawa Malayan Union dimansuhkan.

Pelaksanaan Malayan Union

Meskipun penentangan orang-orang Melayu begitu hebat, kerajaan British enggan menarik balik pelakasanaan rancangan Malayan Union. Sebaliknya, kerajaan British mendesak bahawa Malayan Union dilaksanakan dengan segera supaya Pentadbiran Tentera British yang memerintah Tanah Melayu sejak akhir Pendudukan Jepun dapat dibatalkan.

Malayan Union diisytiharkan pada 1 April 1946 dengan Edward Gent merupakan Gabernor yang pertama. Bagaimanapun, penentangan terhadap Malayan Union adalah sangat kuat sehingga rancangan itu tidak dapat dikuatkuasakan dengan sepenuhnya. Malah pada majlis perlantikan Edward Gent sebagai Gabernor yang pertama majlis tersebut telah dipulau oleh sultan-sultan Melayu. Ia adalah kesan daripada tindakan orang-orang Melayu yang telah berhimpun di luar rumah tumpangan yang didiami oleh sultan-sultan Melayu yang ingin menghadiri ucapara perlantikan tersebut. Ketika itu Orang-orang melayu telah bertindak berkabung dengan cara melilit kain putih pada songkok. Orang-orang Melayu yang berkumpul itu telah menghantar wakil mereka iaitu Dato' Onn Jaafar untuk berunding dengan sultan-sultan agar turut memulaukan upacara tersebut. Melihatkan sokongan rakyat yang begitu kuat mempertahankan tahta mereka, telah menyedarkan sekelian baginda sultan untuk turut berjuang bersama-sama rakyat jelata untuk menggagalkan Malayan Union. Akhirnya,Malayan Union dibatalkan pada 1 Februari 1948 selepas itu untuk mengantikan Malayan Union yang telah gagal itu pihak British terpaksa menurut kehendak masyarakat Melayu yang bertindak melalui UMNO untuk mengwujudkan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu . Penggantian konsep Persekutuan Tanah Melayu yang baru itu dengan skim Malayan Union yang tidak popular dicapai, melalui perundingan antara pihak British, sultan-sultan Melayu dan UMNO.

Pembentukan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu merupakan suatu kemenangan untuk orang-orang Melayu tetapi disambut dengan kecewa oleh beberapa golongan-golongandi dalam etnik yang lain. Bagaimanapun, mereka yang menentang cadangan Persekutuan tidak mempunyai sokongan di Tanah Melayu sendiri. Serta lobi Parlimen dan penyokong-penyokong di London yang telah membantu dalam pembatalan skim Malayan Union.

MERDEKA !!!!!!!

Pada tahun 1954, Tunku Abdul Rahman mengetuai sekumpulan perwakilan ke London untuk memperolehi kemerdekaan Malaya. Bagaimanapun, percubaan sulung itu tidak berjaya. Pada tahun yang berikut, pilihan raya persekutan yang pertama diadakan. Parti Perikatan yang pada saat itu merupakan parti campuran UMNO dengan MCA memenangi 51 daripada 52 kerusi yang ditandingi. Tunku dilantik sebagai Ketua Menteri Malaya yang pertama. MIC yang mewakili kaum India kemudian menyertai Parti Perikatan pada tahun 1955.

Pada tahun 1955, Tunku membuat lagi satu perjalanan ke London untuk berunding tentang kemerdekaan Malaya. Pada kali ini, beliau berjaya, dan 31 Ogos 1957 diputuskan sebagai tarikh kemerdekaan. Sewaktu bendera British diturun di Kuala Lumpur pada hari kemerdekaan, Tunku mengetuai orang ramai untuk menyorak "Merdeka!". Gambar-gambar Tunku dengan tangan yang diangkat naik, dan perakaman-perakaman suaranya yang penuh emosi tetapi berazam mengetuai sorakan, kini merupakan lambang kemerdekaan Malaysia yang biasa.

Upacara Pengisytiharan

Pada 31 Ogos 1957 bertempat di stadium yang baru dirasmikan iaitu Stadium Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur telah menyaksikan peristiwa bersejarah bagi Tanah Melayu iaitu secara rasminya penyerahan pemerintahan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu daripada pemerintahan British kepada warganegara Tanah Melayu.

Hujan lebat yang turun sejak 3 pagi menyukarkan pergerakan dan sehingga 6.30 pagi, stadium masih belum dipenuhi oleh pengunjung. Ini menyebabkan upacara telah ditangguhkan selama sejam dan pengumuman majlis bermula kedengaran bukan pada pukul tujuh seperti yang dijangka tetapi pada pukul lapan. 2,000 orang tentera Persekutuan menumpang di sekolah-sekolah berhampiran stadium sebelum itu berarak dalam hujan dan tujuh batalion yang membuat perarakan ketika itu iaitu Rejimen Persekutuan, Skuadron Isyarat, Skuadron Jurutera, Tentera Laut Diraja Tanah Melayu, Tentera Laut Simpanan Diraja Tanah Melayu dan Askar Sivil Persekutuan.

Pada pukul 8, para media telah diberi pengumuman untuk bersedia dan semua peralatan kamera dan media ketika itu dipasang dengan perlindungan plastik atau pelapik kalis air lain di sekitar padang yang lembap. Kebetulan, hujan reda yang memungkin segala persiapan sebelum upacara bermula dapat dijalankan dengan mudah. Pengunjung bertambah ramai untuk menyaksikan upacara bersejarah ini.

Antara kumpulan pengunjung yang tiba di stadium adalah Kadet, Pengakap Laut (dengan pakaian putih, topi putih dan seluar pendek berwarna biru), Pandu Puteri (berpakaian biru muda), Pengakap (dengan kain skaf, berwarna merah dan emas, merah dan hitam, merah dan biru, merah dan putih), Pasukan Briged St. John's Ambulance dan Palang Merah British turut mengambil tempat di sisi stadium manakala kumpulan pancaragam dan pengawal kehormat berada di susur terowong masuk.

Kemudian, tetamu-temamu kehormat mula tiba Lord Chancellor dari England berpakaian yang sama seperti ketika dia menjadi hakim Mahkamah Tinggi Persekutuan. Pemangku Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan merupakan Raja Melayu yang pertama berangkat tiba diikuti Tengku Mahkota Johor (dalam pakaian uniform tentera baginda) yang menggantikan Sultan Johor, Sultan Perak (berpakaian berwarna krim), Sultan Terengganu (berpakaian emas bersama merah gelap dan hijau), Sultan Kelantan (berpakaian emas pucat), Sultan Kedah (berpakaian biru dan perak) Raja Perlis (berpakaian emas), Sultan Pahang (berwarna merah senduduk dan dan perak) serta yang akhir sekali, baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong yang berpakaian perang serta memakai keris yang baru. Setiap daripada baginda diiringi bunyi nafiri dan berdiri di bawah payung kuning keemasan sambil Yang di-Pertuan Agong berjalan ke tempat duduk baginda. Pengunjung stadium masih lagi berdiri apabila Duke of Gloucester masuk sambil diiringi Sir Donald MacGillivray. Dengan ketibaan semua tetamu diraja, upacara Pengisytiharan dimulakan.

Adikung Duke membawa peralatan perlembagaan yang menyatakan pengunduran daripada perlindungan British terhadap negeri-negeri Melayu dan kedaulatan terhadap Pulau Pinang dan Melaka. Raja-raja Melayu mula melangkah ke pentas dan Duke mengambil tempat di depan pentas sambil menerima hormat diraja sambil diiringi oleh Sir Donald MacGillivray. Ketika itu merupakan kali terakhir satu-satu upacara negara menyanyikan lagi kebangsaan British di Persekutuan Tanah Melayu. Kemudian, baginda Duke membacakan perutusan daripada baginda Ratu Elizabeth II akan pernyataan baginda yang mengalukan kemasukan Persekutuan ke dalam Komanwel dan mendoakan kejayaan negara ini.

Kemudian, Perdama Menteri Tunku Abdul Rahman bangun dari tempat duduknya dan menerima watikah perlembagaan sebagai lambang penyerahan kuasa pemerintahan sepenuhnya kepada Persekutuan Tanah Melayu. Duke mengambil tempat duduk dan Tunku mulakan ucapannya dalam bahasa Inggeris. Setelah Tunku mengucapkan penghargaan kepada Great Britain akan pertolongan untuk mencapai kemerdekaan, beliau mula membaca teks "Pengisytiharan Kemerdekaan".

Pengisytiharan itu disambut dengan laungan "MERDEKA" 7 kali sebagai Perdana Menteri Persekutuan Tanah Melayu yang pertama di hadapan 20 ribu rakyat Persekutuan Tanah Melayu dan Raja-rajanya serta perwakilan dari 30 negara-negara Komanwel dan negara-negara asing lainnya. Bendera Persekutuan Tanah Melayu telah dinaikkan dengan iringan Lagu Kebangsaan Negaraku yang buat pertama kalinya diperdengarkan secara rasmi dalam sebuah negara baru. Diikuti pula selepas itu dengan seruan azan sebagai simbolik lahirnya sebuah negara yang baru dan tembakan meriam seratus satu das.

Dengan bunyi nobat nafiri, Yang di-Pertuan Agong diiringi oleh Duke of Gloucester, berangkat pergi dari pentas diikiuti oleh pemerintah Melayu yang lain, Perdana Menteri dan Sir Donald MacGillivray. Kemudian, Doa Selamat dibacakan bagi memohon keberkatan dan keredhaan Allah terhadap sebuah negara yang baru dilahirkan

Dengan pengisytiharan itu, maka berakhirlah penjajahan Inggeris dan kuasa Baginda Ratu ke atas Persekutuan Tanah Melayu termasuk Pulau Pinang dan Melaka iaitu sejak lebih 170 tahun. Pada hari itu juga Pesuruhjaya Tinggi British terakhir di Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, Sir Donald MacGillivray dan isterinya telah meninggalkan negara ini dan pulang ke England.

NEGARAKU!


Buat kali terakhir GOD SAVE THE QUEEN dimainkan...


MALAYSIAKU GEMILANG!

Victorian era

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of the British Industrial Revolution and the apex of the British Empire. Although commonly used to refer to the period of Queen Victoria's rule between 1837 and 1901, scholars debate whether the Victorian period—as defined by a variety of sensibilities and political concerns that have come to be associated with the Victorians—actually begins with the passage of the Reform Act 1832. The era was preceded by the Regency era and succeeded by the Edwardian period

This inescapable sense of newness resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities. Gothic Revival architecture became increasingly significant in the period, leading to the Battle of the Styles between Gothic and Classical ideals. Charles Barry's architecture for the new Palace of Westminster, which had been badly damaged in an 1834 fire, built on the medieval style of Westminster Hall, the surviving part of the building. It constructed a narrative of cultural continuity, set in opposition to the violent disjunctions of Revolutionary France, a comparison common to the period, as expressed in Thomas Carlyle's The French Revolution: A History and Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Gothic was also supported by the critic John Ruskin, who argued that it epitomised communal and inclusive social values, as opposed to Classicism, which he considered to epitomise mechanical standardisation.

The middle of the century saw The Great Exhibition of 1851, the first World's Fair and showcased the greatest innovations of the century. At its centre was The Crystal Palace, an enormous, modular glass and iron structure - the first of its kind. It was condemned by Ruskin as the very model of mechanical dehumanisation in design, but later came to be presented as the prototype of Modern architecture. The emergence of photography, which was showcased at the Great Exhibition, resulted in significant changes in Victorian art. John Everett Millais was influenced by photography (notably in his portrait of Ruskin) as were other Pre-Raphaelite artists. It later became associated with the Impressionistic and Social Realist techniques that would dominate the later years of the period in the work of artists such as Walter Sickert and Frank Holl.

Popular forms of entertainment vary by socioeconomic class. Victorian England, like the periods before it, was interested in theatre and the arts. Music, drama, and opera were widely attended. There were, however, other forms of entertainment. Gambling at cards in establishments popularly called casinos was wildly popular during the period--so much so that evangelical and reform movements specifically targeted such establishments in their efforts to stop gambling, drinking, and prostitution.

Brass bands and 'The bandstand' became popular in the Victorian era typically associated with the British brass band. The band stand is a simple construction which not only creates an ornamental focal point, it also serves acoustic requirements whilst providing shelter for the changeable British weather. It was common to hear the sound of a brass band whilst strolling through parklands. At this time musical recording was still very much a novelty.

Another form of entertainment involved 'spectacles' where paranormal events, such as hypnotism, communication with the dead (by way of mediumship or channelling), ghost conjuring and the like, were carried out to the delight of crowds and participants. Such activities were very popular during this time compared to others in recent Western history.

Beginning in the late 1840s, major news organisations, clergymen and single women became increasingly interested in prostitution, which came to be known as "The Great Social Evil." Although estimates of the number of prostitutes in London by the 1850s vary widely (in his landmark study, Prostitution, William Acton reported that the police estimated there were 8,600 in 1857 London alone), it is enough to say that the number of women working the streets became increasingly difficult to ignore.

When the 1851 census publicly revealed a 4% demographic imbalance in favour of women (i.e. 4% more women than men), the problem of prostitution began to shift from a moral/religious cause to a socio-economic one. The 1851 census showed that the population of Great Britain was roughly 18 million; this meant that roughly 750,000 women would remain unmarried simply because there were not enough men. These women came to be referred to as "superfluous women" or "redundant women," and many essays were published discussing what, precisely, ought to be done with them.

While the Magdalen Hospital had been "reforming" prostitutes since the mid-18th century, the years between 1848 and 1870 saw a veritable explosion in the number of institutions working to "reclaim" these "fallen women" from the streets and retrain them for entry into respectable society—usually for work as domestic servants. The theme of prostitution and the "fallen woman" (an umbrella term used to describe any women who had sexual intercourse out of wedlock) became a staple feature of mid-Victorian literature and politics. In the writings of Henry Mayhew, Charles Booth and others, prostitution began to be seen as a social problem, rather than just a fact of urban life.

When Parliament passed the first of the Contagious Diseases Acts in 1864 (which allowed the local constabulary to force any woman suspected of venereal disease to submit to its inspection), Josephine Butler's crusade to repeal the CD Acts yoked the anti-prostitution cause with the emergent feminist movement. Butler attacked the long-established double standard of sexual morality.

Prostitutes were often presented as victims in sentimental literature such Thomas Hood's poem The Bridge of Sighs, Elizabeth Gaskell's novel Mary Barton and Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. The emphasis on the purity of women found in such works as Coventry Patmore's The Angel in the House led to the portrayal of the prostitute and fallen woman as soiled, corrupted, and in need of cleansing.

This emphasis on female purity was allied to the stress on the homemaking role of women, who helped to create a space free from the pollution and corruption of the city. In this respect the prostitute came to have symbolic significance as the embodiment of the violation of that divide. The double standard remained in force. Divorce legislation introduced in 1857 allowed for a man to divorce his wife for adultery, but a woman could only divorce if adultery was accompanied by cruelty. The anonymity of the city led to a large increase in prostitution and unsanctioned sexual relationships. Dickens and other writers associated prostitution with the mechanization and industrialization of modern life, portraying prostitutes as human commodities consumed and thrown away like refuse when they were used up. Moral reform movements attempted to close down brothels, something that has sometimes been argued to have been a factor in the concentration of street-prostitution in White chapel by the late 1880s.

Victorian morality

Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of people living at the time of Queen Victoria (reigned 1837 - 1901) in particular, and to the moral climate of Grea Britain throughout the 19th century in general. It is not tied to this historical period and can describe any set of values that espouses sexual repression, low tolerance of crime, and a strong social ethic. Due to the prominence of the British Empire, many of these values were spread across the world.

Historians now regard the Victorian era as a time of many contradictions. A plethora of social movements concerned with improving public morals co-existed with a class system that permitted harsh living conditions for many. The apparent contradiction between the widespread cultivation of an outward appearance of dignity and restraint and the prevalence of social phenomena that included prostitution and child labour were two sides of the same coin: various social reform movements and high principles arose from attempts to improve the harsh conditions.

Historical background

The term Victorian has acquired a range of connotations, including that of a particularly strict set of moral standards, which are often applied hypocritically. This stems from the image of Queen Victoria—and her husband, Prince Albert, perhaps even more so—as innocents, unaware of the private habits of many of her respectable subjects; this particularly relates to their sex lives. This image is mistaken: Victoria’s attitude toward sexual morality was a consequence of her knowledge of the corrosive effect of the loose morals of the aristocracy in earlier reigns upon the public’s respect for the nobility and the Crown.

Two hundred years earlier the Puritan republican movement, which led to the installment of Oliver Cromwell, had temporarily overthrown the British monarchy. During England’s years as a republic, the law imposed a strict moral code on the people (even abolishing Christmas as too indulgent of the sensual pleasures).

When the monarchy was restored, a period of loose living and debauchery appeared to be a reaction to the earlier repression. See: Charles II of England. The two social forces of Puritanism and libertinism continued to motivate the collective psyche of Great Britain from the restoration onward. This was particularly significant in the public perceptions of the later Hanoverian monarchs who immediately preceded Queen Victoria. For instance, her uncle George IV was commonly perceived as a pleasure-seeking playboy, whose conduct in office was the cause of much scandal.

By the time of Victoria, the interplay between high cultured morals and low vulgarity was thoroughly embedded in British culture.

Victorian prudery sometimes went so far as to deem it improper to say "leg" in mixed company; instead, the preferred euphemism “limb” was used. Those going for a swim in the sea at the beach would use a bathing machine. However, historians Peter Gay and Michael Mason both point out that we often confuse Victorian etiquette for a lack of knowledge. For example, despite the use of the bathing machine, it was also possible to see people bathing nude. Another example of the gap between our preconceptions of Victorian sexuality and the facts is that contrary to what we might expect, Queen Victoria liked to draw and collect male nudes and even gave her husband one as a present

Verbal or written communication of emotion or sexual feelings was also often proscribed so people instead used the language of flowers. However they also wrote explicit erotica, perhaps the most famous being the racy tell-all My Secret Life by Henry Spencer Ashbee, who wrote under the pseudonym Walter, and the magazine The Pearl, which was published for several years and reprinted as a paper book in the 1960's. Victorian erotica also survives in private letters archived in museums and even in a study of women's orgasms. Some current historians now believe that the myth of Victorian repression can be traced back to early twentieth-century views such as those of Lytton Strachey, a member of the Bloomsbury Group who wrote Eminent Victorians.

Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837, only four years after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. The anti-slavery movement had campaigned for years to achieve the ban, succeeding with a partial abolition in 1807 and the full ban on slave trade, but not slave ownership, in 1833. It had taken so long because the anti-slavery morality was pitted against a powerful capitalist element in the empire which claimed that their businesses would be destroyed if they were not permitted to exploit slave labour. Eventually plantation owners in the Caribbean received £20 million in compensation.

In Victoria's time the British Royal Navy patrolled the Atlantic Ocean, stopping any ships that it suspected of trading African slaves to the Americas and freeing any slaves found. The British had set up a Crown Colony in West Africa—Sierra Leone—and transported freed slaves there. Freed slaves from Nova Scotia founded and named the capital of Sierra Leone "Freetown". Thus, when Victoria became Queen the British occupied a high moral ground as the nation that stood for freedom and decency. Many people living at that time argued that the living conditions of workers in English factories seemed worse than those endured by some slaves.

In the same way, throughout the Victorian Era, movements for justice, freedom and other strong moral values opposed greed, exploitation and cynicism. The writings of Charles Dickens in particular observed and recorded these conditions. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels carried out much of their analysis of capitalism in and as a reaction to Victorian Britain.

Victorian literature

Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837—1901) and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century.

The 19th century saw the novel become the leading form of literature in English. The works by pre-Victorian writers such as Jane Austen and Walter Scott had perfected both closely-observed social satire and adventure stories. Popular works opened a market for the novel amongst a reading public. The 19th century is often regarded as a high point in British literature as well as in other countries such as France, the United States of America and Russia. Books, and novels in particular, became ubiquitous, and the "Victorian novelist" created legacy works with continuing appeal.

Significant Victorian novelists and poets include: the Brontë sisters, (Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë), Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Lewis Carroll, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Gissing, Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Philip Meadows Taylor, Lord Alfred Tennyson, William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope and Oscar Wilde.

. Novelists

Charles Dickens exemplifies the Victorian novel better than any other writer. Extraordinarily popular in his day with his characters taking on a life of their own beyond the page, Dickens is still the most popular and read author of the time. His first real novel, The Pickwick Papers, written at only twenty-five, was an overnight success, and all his subsequent works sold extremely well. He was in effect a self made man who worked diligently and prolifically to produce exactly what the public wanted; often reacting to the public taste and changing the plot direction of his stories between monthly numbers. The comedy of his first novel has a satirical edge which pervades his writings. These deal with the plight of the poor and oppressed and end with a ghost story cut short by his death. The slow trend in his fiction towards darker themes is mirrored in much of the writing of the century, and literature after his death in 1870 is notably different from that at the start of the era.

William Thackeray was Dickens' great rival at the time. With a similar style but a slightly more detached, acerbic and barbed satirical view of his characters, he also tended to depict situations of a more middle class flavour than Dickens. He is best known for his novel Vanity Fair, subtitled A Novel without a Hero, which is also an example of a form popular in Victorian literature: the historical novel, in which very recent history is depicted. Anthony Trollope tended to write about a slightly different part of the structure, namely the landowning and professional classes.

Away from the big cities and the literary society, Haworth in West Yorkshire held a powerhouse of novel writing: the home of the Brontë family. Anne, Charlotte and Emily Brontë had time in their short lives to produce masterpieces of fiction although these were not immediately appreciated by Victorian critics. Wuthering Heights, Emily's only work, in particular has violence, passion, the supernatural, heightened emotion and emotional distance, an unusual mix for any novel but particularly at this time. It is a prime example of Gothic Romanticism from a woman's point of view during this period of time, examining class, myth, and gender. Another important writer of the period was George Eliot, a pseudonym which concealed a woman, Mary Ann Evans, who wished to write novels which would be taken seriously rather than the silly romances which all women of the time were supposed to write.

The style of the Victorian novel

Virginia Woolf in her series of essays The Common Reader called George Eliot's Middlemarch "one of the few English novels written for grown-up people". This criticism, although rather broadly covering as it does all English literature, is rather a fair comment on much of the fiction of the Victorian Era. Influenced as they were by the large sprawling novels of sensibility of the preceding age they tended to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrong-doers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart, informing the reader how to be a good Victorian. This formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction but as the century progressed the plot thickened.

Eliot in particular strove for realism in her fiction and tried to banish the picturesque and the burlesque from her work. Another woman writer Elizabeth Gaskell wrote even grimmer, grittier books about the poor in the north of England but even these usually had happy endings. After the death of Dickens in 1870 happy endings became less common. Such a major literary figure as Charles Dickens tended to dictate the direction of all literature of the era, not least because he edited All the Year Round a literary journal of the time. His fondness for a happy ending with all the loose ends neatly tied up is clear and although he is well known for writing about the lives of the poor they are sentimentalized portraits, made acceptable for people of character to read; to be shocked but not disgusted. The more unpleasant underworld of Victorian city life was revealed by Henry Mayhew in his articles and book London Labour and the London Poor.

This change in style in Victorian fiction was slow coming but clear by the end of the century, with the books in the 1880s and 90s more realistic and often grimmer. Even writers of the high Victorian age were censured for their plots attacking the conventions of the day with Adam Bede being called "the vile outpourings of a lewd woman's mind" and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall "utterly unfit to be put into the hands of girls". The disgust of the reading audience perhaps reached a peak with Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure which was reportedly burnt by an outraged bishop of Wakefield. The cause of such fury was Hardy's frank treatment of sex, religion and his disregard for the subject of marriage; a subject close to the Victorians' heart, with the prevailing plot of the Victorian novel sometimes being described as a search for a correct marriage.

Hardy had started his career as seemingly a rather safe novelist writing bucolic scenes of rural life but his disaffection with some of the institutions of Victorian Britain was present as well as an underlying sorrow for the changing nature of the English countryside. The hostile reception to Jude in 1895 meant that it was his last novel but he continued writing poetry into the mid 1920s. Other authors such as Samuel Butler and George Gissing confronted their antipathies to certain aspects of marriage, religion or Victorian morality and peppered their fiction with controversial anti-heros. Butler's Erewhon, for one, is a utopian novel satirising many aspects of Victorian society with Butler's particular dislike of the religious hypocrisy attracting scorn and being depicted as "Musical Banks".

Whilst many great writers were at work at the time, the large numbers of voracious but uncritical readers meant that poor writers, producing salacious and lurid novels or accounts, found eager audiences. Many of the faults common to much better writers were used abundantly by writers now mostly forgotten: over-sentimentality, unrealistic plots and moralising obscuring the story. Although immensely popular in his day, Edward Bulwer-Lytton is now held up as an example of the very worst of Victorian literature with his sensationalist story-lines and his over-boiled style of prose. Other writers popular at the time but largely forgotten now are: Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Charles Kingsley, R. D. Blackmore and even Benjamin Disraeli, a future Prime Minister.

Victorian architecture

The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly in the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign of Queen Victoria after whom it is named.

Varieties of Victorian architecture

• British Arts and Crafts movement
• Gothic Revival
• Italianate
• Jacobethan (the precursor to the Queen Anne style)
• Neoclassicism
• Neo-Grec
• Painted ladies
• Queen Anne
• Renaissance Revival
• Romanesque Revival (includes Richardsonian Romanesque)
• Second Empire
• Stick-Eastlake
• Industrial architecture

There are also Folk and Shingle Style Victorian Houses. Please note that the names of architectural styles (as well as their adaptations) varied between countries. Many homes combined the elements of several different styles and are not easily distinguishable as one particular style or another. Highly decorated houses are sometimes called gingerbread houses.

Notable Victorian era cities include London, Boston, St. Louis, Galveston, San Francisco, Glasgow, Melbourne, Manchester, Mumbai and New Orleans.

The South End of Boston is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest and largest Victorian neighborhood in the United States.

Victorian decorative arts

Victorian decorative arts refers to the style of decorative art during the Victorian era. The Victorian era is known for its electic revival and interpretation of historic styles and the introduction of cross-cultural influences from the Middle East and Asia in furniture, fittings, and interior decoration. In the late Victorian period the Arts and craft movement, the aesthetic movement , Anglo-Japanese style, and Art Nouveau style have their beginnings.

Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness and ornamentation. A house of this period was ideally neatly divided in rooms, with public and private space carefully separated. The Parlor was the most important room in a home and showcase for the homeowners; where guests entertained. A bare room was considered in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owners interests and aspirations. The dining room was the second most important room in the house. The sideboard was most often the focal point of the dining room and very ornately decorated.

There was no one dominant style of furniture in the homes Victorian period. Designers used and modified many of styles taken from various time periods in history with Gothic, Tudor, Elizabethan, English Rococo, Neoclassical and others. The Gothic and Rococo revival style were the most common styles to be seen in furniture during this time in history.

Wallpaper was often made in elaborate floral patterns with primary colour in the backgrounds, such as red, blue and green and overprinted with colours of cream and tan. This was followed by Gothic arts inspired papers in earth tones with stylized leaf and floral patterns. William Morriss was one of the most influential designers of wallpaper and fabrics during the latter half of the Victorian period. Morris was inspired and use of Medieval and Gothic tapestries in his work. Embossed paper was used on ceilings and friezes.

Victorian fashion

The term "Victorian fashion" refers to fashion in clothing in the Victorian era, or the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). It is strictly used only with regard to the United Kingdom and its colonies, but is often used loosely to refer to Western fashions of the period. It may also refer to a supposedly unified style in clothing, home décor, manners, and morals, or a culture, said to be prevalent in the West during this period.

Several general style trends of the Victorian era transcend any one facet of fashion, but rather had broad influence across clothing styles, architecture, literature, and the decorative arts. Many of these had their roots in the 18th century but flowered in the Victorian age. These include:

• Orientalism
• The romanticising of the Scottish Highlands
• The Gothic revival, which in turn generated the Pre-Raphaelites and Artistic Dress
• Aestheticism

Overview of women's fashions, 1794-1887

The Great Exhibition of 1851 had a marked impact on fashion, especially home décor, and even social reform movements influenced fashion, through dress reform and rational dress.

Clothing

See also fashion by decades: 1830s - 1840s - 1850s - 1860s- 1870s - 1880s- 1890s

Methods of clothing production and distribution varied enormously over the course of Victoria's long reign.

In 1837, cloth was manufactured (in the mill towns of northern England, Scotland, and Ireland) but clothing was generally custom-made by seamstresses, milliners, tailors, hatters, glovers, corsetieres, and many other specialized trades people, who served a local clientele in small shops. Families who could not afford to patronize specialists made their own clothing, or bought and modified used clothing.

By 1907, clothing was increasingly factory-made and sold in large, fixed price department stores. Custom sewing and home sewing were still significant, but on the decline.

New machinery and materials changed clothing in many ways.

The introduction of the lock-stitch sewing machine in mid-century simplified both home and boutique dressmaking, and enabled a fashion for lavish application of trim that would have been prohibitively time-consuming if done by hand. Lace machinery made lace at a fraction of the cost of the old, laborious methods.

New materials from far-flung British colonies gave rise to new types of clothing (such as rubber making gumboots and mackintoshes possible). Chemists developed new, cheap, bright dyes that displaced the old animal or vegetable dyes.

Victorian chic

Also see: Neo-Victorian

Some people now look back on the Victorian era with wistful nostalgia. They imagine a dream world of lacy dresses, lavish balls, country house parties, and charming cottages surrounded by old-fashioned flowers (see, for example, the paintings of Thomas Kinkade).Historians would say that this is as much a distortion of the real history as the stereotypes emphasizing Victorian repression and prudery.

Also notable is a contemporary counter-cultural trend called steampunk. Youth who dress steampunk wear Victorian-style clothing that has been "tweaked" in edgy ways: tattered, distorted, melded with Goth, Punk, and Rivet styles. Another example of Victorian fashion being incorporated into a contemporary style is the Gothic Lolita culture.

Victorion food

The Victoria sponge cake was named after Queen Victoria, who favored a slice of the sponge cake with her afternoon tea. It is often referred to simply as sponge cake, though it contains additional fat. A traditional Victoria sponge consists of jam and whipped cream sandwiched between two sponge cakes; the top of the cake is not iced or decorated. But there is also a lemon filling option.

A Victoria sponge is made in two main ways. The traditional method involves creaming caster sugar with fat (usually butter, although margarine can also be used), mixing thoroughly with beaten egg, then folding flour and raising agent into the mixture. The modern method, using an electric mixer or food processor, involves simply whisking all the ingredients together until creamy.^[1][2][3] In the latter case, a little extra raising agent is normally used, and some recipes call for an extra-soft butter or margarine.^{[citation needed]} Both are relatively quick and simple, producing consistent results, making this type of mixture one of the most popular for children and people in a hurry. This basic 'cake' mixture has been made into an endless variety of treats and puddings, including fairy cakes, butterfly cakes, chocolate cake, Eve's pudding and many others

Sponge cake

sponge cake is a cake based on wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and eggs. The only fat present is from the egg yolk, which is sometimes added separately from the white. It is often used as a base for other types of cakes and sweets

A basic sponge cake is made by beating the eggs with sugar until they are light and creamy^[, then carefully sieving and folding in the flour (which may be mixed with a small amount of baking powder, though some chefs consider that the air incorporated into the egg mixture is sufficient for a good rise without the need for extra raising agent). Sometimes, the yolks are beaten with the sugar first while the whites are beaten separately, to be mixed in later. The mixture is then poured into the chosen cake tin and baked. As can be seen, both methods take great care to incorporate air in the beating, whisking and sieving stages. This makes a very light product, but it is easy to lose the air by removing the cake before it has finished in the oven.

Fairy cake

A fairy cake or cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, usually made in a small paper cup container. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decoration, such as sprinkles, are often applied.

Cupcakes are often served during a celebration, such as children's classroom birthday parties. They are a more convenient alternative to cake because they don't require plate, utensils or dividing into pieces because they are smaller. Cupcakes were first invented in the early 1800s.

A simple cupcake uses the same ingredients as most other standard cakes - incorporating butter, sugar, egg and flour.

The name "cup" cakes or "measure" cakes is believed to have developed because of the use of the practice of measuring the ingredients using a standard-sized cup instead of the previous practice of weighing the ingredients. The fact that these little cakes were baked in cup-shaped muffin baking containers gave double-meaning to the term "cup cake", and was probably the main factor for "cupcake" becoming the most common term.

It is also possible that cupcakes came into being simply as smaller versions of the victoria sponge cake, as the mixture required is exactly the same. The mixture is also the same as the quarter cake recipe, so called because it is made up of four ingredients in equal ratios; butter, self-raising flour, eggs and castor sugar.

FAIRY CAKE RECIPES

INGREDIENTS:

125g fresh fruit, such as strawberries, peaches, apples, pears or bananas
125g soft margarine
125g caster sugar
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp natural vanilla extract or cinnamon or ground mixed spice

for the icing:
250g icing sugar
3 tbsp fruit juice or water
edible food colouring
sweets or tubes of writing icing, to decorate
assorted sweets

PREPARATION:

1. Ask an adult to preheat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and chop the fruit into small pieces with a knife on the chopping board. Wash your hands, then put the paper cases in the bun trays.

2. Put the margarine and sugar in a large bowl. Sift in the flour and baking powder. Break in the eggs and add the vanilla extract, cinnamon or ground mixed spice.

3. Beat with a wooden spoon until evenly mixed ? the mixture should fall easily off the spoon when lightly tapped against the side of the bowl.

4. Stir the fruit into the cake mixture, and spoon into the cake cases, using a teaspoon. Ask an adult to cook them towards the centre of the oven for 18-20 minutes until risen, golden and springy to the touch.

5. Ask an adult to remove trays from the oven. Cool slightly, then lift out with a palette knife. Transfer to a cooling rack until cold.

6. To decorate, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the fruit juice or water a little at a time. Mix to a thick icing. Add food colouring, or leave half of the icing white and colour the remaining half.

7. Spoon a little icing on to each cake and spread with a knife. Leave to set. Decorate by sticking on sweets or drawing funny faces with writing icing.

PREP/COOK INFORMATION: Prep time: 40 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes Serves: 4

Source: Tesco

Appendix

Yesterday, my sister had her appendix out. She said the operation was so painful, she had a grumbling appendix so the doctor took her appendix out. She is 14 years old (2 years younger than me). She studies in a boarding school known as Sekolah Tun Fatimah in Johore Bharu.

this song is for my sister+get well soon (one of her favourite song)

my sweet little sis....

Vermiform appendix

In human anatomy, the vermiform appendix (or appendix, pl. appendices) is a blind ended tube connected to the cecum, from which it develops embryo logically. The term "vermiform" comes from Latin and means "wormlike in appearance". The cecum is the first pouch-like structure of the colon. The appendix is near the junction of the small intestines and large intestines.

The appendix averages 100 mm in length, but can range from 20 to 200 mm. The diameter of the appendix is usually less than 7 to 8 mm. The longest appendix ever removed was that of a Pakistani man on June 11, 2003, at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, measuring 235 mm (9.2 in) in length. Whether the appendix has a function, it is routinely removed without any ill effects or side effects.

Some experts believe that the appendix was used for digesting leaves as primates. Over time, we have eaten less vegetable and have evolved, over millions of years, for this organ to be smaller to make room for our stomach.

There have been cases of people who have been found, usually on laparoscopy or laparotomy, to have a congenital absence of their appendix. There have been no reports of impaired immune or gastrointestinal function in these people.

Diseases

The most common diseases of the appendix (in humans) are appendicitis and carcinoid tumors. Appendix cancer accounts for about 1 in 200 of all gastrointestinal malignancies. Adenomas also (rarely) present.

Appendicitis (or epityphlitis) is a condition characterized by inflammation of the appendix. Virtually all cases of Appendicitis require removal of the inflamed appendix, either by laparotomy or laparoscopy. Untreated, the appendix will rupture leading to peritonitis then shock and if continued untreated death. Pain often begins in the center of the abdomen where the lining of the stomach is irritated then moves lower right as the condition develops, it is important to note that this makes diagnoses difficult in the early stages that only an MRI can detect. Appendicitis presents as pain in the right lower quadrant with rebound tenderness. In particular, it presents at McBurney's Point, 1/3 of the way along a line drawn from the Anterior Superior Iliac Spine to the Umbilicus. Rebound tenderness is when it does not hurt to press on the point but it hurts greatly when the pressure is released, or when the skin rebounds. Typically, point (skin) pain is not present until the parietal peritoneum is inflamed as well. Fever and immune system response are also characteristic of appendicitis. It is important to see a physician if stomach pain is present.

The surgical removal of the vermiform appendix is called an appendicectomy (or appendectomy). This procedure is normally performed as an emergency procedure, when the patient is suffering from acute appendicitis. In the absence of surgical facilities, intravenous antibiotics are used to delay or avoid the onset of sepsis; it is now recognized that many cases will resolve when treated non-operatively. In some cases the appendicitis resolves completely; more often, an inflammatory mass forms around the appendix. This is a relative contraindication to surgery.

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