Patriots & Pretenders is the peoples’ history of the Malayan Independence struggle, which challenges the ‘official’ version of how ‘Merdeka’ was won. Following on from his 2007 best-selling May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969, Dr Kua Kia Soong here attempts to put the record straight on another important episode in Malaysian history. As in May 13, he has scoured documents from the British Archives which reveal the thinking behind British colonial strategy during the Emergency, especially for post-colonial Malaya. These documents also reveal the efforts of the British High Commissioner at the time, in the formation of the Alliance.

This alternative history poses these questions for Malaysians today:
- Who were the patriots who fought to liberate the country from the British colonial power and the Japanese fascists during WWII, and who were the pretenders?
- Which parties at that time stood for genuine multi-ethnicity?
- How would the nation have developed if the “People’s Constitution” of the AMCJA-PUTERA coalition had been adopted at Independence?
- How have current policies deviated from the so-called “Social Contract” at Independence?
- How have communalist politics been perpetuated in Malaysia since Independence?

While this country remains stuck in a racialist rut after 54 years on Independence, Patriots & Pretenders calls on Malaysians to break through to a people-centred non-racial agenda for change. From the lessons of the past, Kua outlines some pointers to the future which could form the Malaysian peoples’ demands for the next general elections.