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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia went into party mode on Friday to celebrate its 50 years as a nation, staging an extravagant display of pomp and ceremony and appealing for racial unity.

Fighter jets performed aerial acrobatics overhead and helicopters billowed out the colours of the flag as 24,000 people, ranging from school children to war veterans, began to parade past Independence Square.

Police said about 60,000 people came out to watch, waving flags and jamming the historic railway station near the square as they jostled for view.

Performers dressed in the national colours of blue, yellow, white and red led the crowds singing as the parade snaked past local and foreign dignitaries gathered on Independence Square, including Britain's Prince Andrew.

The celebration of independence from Britain, however, comes at a time when Malaysia has been increasingly questioning its identity, a theme picked up by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

At a midnight flag-raising ceremony he urged people to be patriotic about Malaysia, which vaunts its multicultural status.

"We always take care of all the races. We respect each other," he told the cheering crowds.

"We must take care of our unity and we must be ready to destroy any threat which may effect our unity."

Car horns hooted through the night in the capital Kuala Lumpur along with shouts of "Merdeka!", the word for independence.

But not everyone was in the mood to celebrate the half-century, with many hoping for more reflection on the nation's birthday.

"The explosion of hope from Merdeka has been followed by disillusionment and disappointment," Lim Guan Eng, secretary general of the opposition DAP party, said in a statement.

He highlighted two recent events which have called into question people's freedom of speech and religion in Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority but a significant number also of Christians, Hindus and Buddhists.

In May, the nation's top secular court rejected a woman's bid to be legally recognised as a Christian after renouncing Islam, while earlier this month a man was placed investigation for sedition after he recorded a video of himself rapping alternative lyrics to the national anthem.

"Merdeka means nothing if the people are not free to express themselves, to organise peaceful assembly and to form organisations against corruption, abuse of power and mismanagement of the country," said human rights group SUARAM.

The foreign dignitaries here also include the prime ministers of Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Malaysia, whose geographical location made it a natural trade and cultural bridge which drew European traders several centuries ago, won its independence under its then name Malaya in 1957 and became Malaysia in 1963.

Its population numbers nearly 25 million while its economy – traditionally based on natural resources such as rubber, palm oil, timber and tin – has been increasingly developing the manufacturing and services sectors.