Must Read Article ! : The Legacy of the May 13, 1969 Race Riots

by

N. Surendran

Quote:

".... The importance of Kua’s new book cannot be overstated.

He has un-done four decades of concealment, evasion and outright lies.

He relentlessly pursues the truth, but always in a matter of fact and un-emotional tone.

(The) documents establish, beyond any doubt, the manipulative ruthlessness of men like Tun Razak, Tun Dr Ismail, and Datuk Harun Idris. And in their wake came half-baked national culture peddlers like Ghazali Shafie.

He has no need to resort to histrionics.

The bare facts he has presented for our scrutiny speak for themselves. ..."
-N.Surendran

Read here full article

Excerpts: Read here for more

Related Article:

"..Former Utusan Melayu editor-in-chief Said Zahari said Malaysians of all races must read the latest book on the May 13 riots with an open mind and positive attitude.

He said the ‘May 13' riots in 1969 is a historical reality and mature people should not be afraid to face up to history.

“There are certainly lessons to be learned by all sides. But before correct lessons can be learned, there must first be correct facts. Otherwise, we would be learning the wrong lessons. ”

He said Malaysian and Singaporean societies are multi-ethnic and “vulnerable” to “negative influences” from other parts of the world.

Therefore, he said, it is important for people of different ethnic communities to develop a stronger sense of mutual understanding, empathy and solidarity based on truth, justice, fairness and inclusiveness. Read here for more

May 13 made this country. Or more accurately, it un-made it.

Kua, making use of newly de-classified documents tells us why the May 13 incident happened, and who were the people responsible for it.

The gist of what he has to say is what most people who are not abysmally ignorant have long suspected.

That:

1. the May 13 incident was NOT a ‘spontaneous’ clash between the Malay and Chinese communities;
   
   
2. the key figures in the Alliance government then - such as Tun Abdul Razak - had carefully pre-planned and orchestrated the whole grisly business. Other fellows involved in the ghastly plot or its aftermath in varying degrees were Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Harun Idris and Ghazali Shafie.
   
   
3. the idea was to oust the Tunku who was none too keen on Razak and his cohorts’ new Malay agenda;
   
   
4. the agenda was that of the ‘ascendant Malay state capitalist class’ for political and economic dominance;
   
   
5. the Razak-ites got support from the police and army as evidenced by the partiality of the security forces in favour of the Malays in ‘putting down’ the riots. Curfews were strictly enforced in Chinese areas, whereas soldiers were laughing it up with armed hoodlums in Malay areas.

The difference this book makes is that Kua has marshalled clear documentary evidence as proof of the above.

He has drawn from:

stories fielded by foreign correspondents who were in Kuala Lumpur at the time;

dispatches by the British High Commission personnel who kept a close watch on events and who had their ears to the ground;

dispatches from the foreign and Commonwealth offices covering the South-west Pacific countries, eg Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Singapore as well as

press releases by the Malaysian Red Cross Society’.

Malaysians have never before seen these documents, hitherto mouldering at the Public Records Office in London and now resurrected.

These documents establish, beyond any doubt, the manipulative ruthlessness of men like Tun Razak, Tun Dr Ismail, and Datuk Harun Idris.

The Dreadful Legacy Left Behind

And in their wake came half-baked national culture peddlers like Ghazali Shafie.

Their actions not only caused dreadful loss of life and untold human suffering:

1. May 13 also wrenched this nation away from the path to true parliamentary democracy and left us with the misshapen perverse system of government we now suffer under.
   
   
2. It gave rise to the panoply of repressive legislation which today makes us ‘cribbed, cabined and confined’ in our own country.
   
   
3. It has caused us to enter the 21st century encumbered with a political system that is race-based and parochial.



4. It has led to the propagation of racist concepts such as ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ (Malay Supremacy) which has entered into mainstream political discourse.
   
   
5. It has resulted in the creation of a special class of citizens called ‘bumiputeras’ who are given preferential treatment by the state;
   
   
6. Made second-class citizens of Malaysians of OTHER races.
   
   
7. It has become the great bogey, conjured up by the BN government at every general election in order to terrorise Malaysians into voting for them.
   
   
8. It has shamed our nation - a nation that categorises and marks its citizens by their race from birth.

This is the legacy of May 13, and this will remain the legacy of May 13 until the truth of what caused the bloodbath is revealed to all Malaysians, regardless of race.

Its repercussions are all around us.

Last year, a cabinet minister waved a keris about as a warning to non-Malays, and now Maybank and Ambank have tried to impose bumiputra quotas on legal firms wanting to do business with them.

This is why the importance of Kua’s new book cannot be overstated.

In six sharp, short chapters, he has un-done four decades of concealment, evasion and outright lies.

In this fine book, he relentlessly pursues the truth, but always in a matter of fact and un-emotional tone. He has no need to resort to histrionics.

The bare facts he has presented for our scrutiny speak for themselves.