What the passing of a symbol of empire means to Malaysia

While Queen Elizabeth II was not involved in talks negotiating Malaya's independence, she remained a strong symbol of the British Commonwealth when she made her rounds of those nations; she visited Malaysia three times, the last in conjunction with the 1998 Commonwealth Games. This is an image from the queen's 1972 visit when she went on a walkabout at Foch Avenue (now Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock) in Kuala Lumpur. — Filepic/The Star

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II was simultaneously surprising and expected. Just a few days before her death she appointed the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss – at 96 years old, the queen continued with her duties when others would have long passed them on.

Mixed among the praise of her life’s achievements were the reminders by snarky observers that Britain had once been a colonial power that treated its mostly unwilling subjects alternately with contempt, conniving and compulsion.