Merdeka! describes the explosive situation in Malaya between the end of the Second World War until the termination of direct British rule in 1957. It discusses how the leading contenders for power and influence manoeuvered for pre-eminence in the political arena. The author suggests that the political reforms of the 1950s and the British government’s support of and final transfer of power to the non-communist Alliance coalition were due to the inability of the British to suppress the communist revolt otherwise.

“Few good historians – readable historians, that is – have ever been truly objective. Gibbon, Macaulay, Wells, Trevelyan – some of these have been downright opinionated at times, blithely abandoning all pretence of objectivity in order to insert their own, often partisan, comments and asides. [Khong Kim Hoong] is commendably objective. His choice of sources and authorities is catholic. Numerous footnotes appear on almost every page. The sources which he quotes are carefully attributed, and when he ventures his own comment and overview, he makes it quite clear to the reader that he is expressing his own opinion and that of no one else. This is refreshing. It offers the reader a chance to disagree with his opinions without undermining that reader’s confidence in the accuracy of the facts presented in the book.