May 13th 1969 – The Correct View (intermission)

I have decided to write and publish this article before we continue to the last part. This can be considered as ironing out emotional issues pertaining the previous two articles.

But first and foremost, I thank everyone who had taken the time to read those articles and I appreciate the fact that you had put extra effort in writing your views on the matter. I am also gratified that some of the commentators had put on their thinking caps and chipped in their arguments in a civilised discourse.

Many had rebutted each other’s comments and I feel that in the end, common sense should prevail. I have always thought that this blog aspire to be a role model in encouraging an intelligent and civil discussion. Discussions that will add to our benefit.

On the contrary, discussions that are laden with over powering prejudice and hate will not contribute to our cumulative knowledge. It distracts you, and ridicule your decision-making prowess.

However, I am sad that there are at least one-third of the commentators had resorted to be emotional in commenting. Some had warned me for publishing the pictures as they say I will incite hatred among the Malays towards the chinese.

I find this paradoxically challenging but nevertheless very much enthusiastic to say that this very opinion solidified some of my arguments that hateful and racist demonstrations that had happened during that time were indeed one of the contributing factor of the whole incident.

If you are worried that the pictures will incite hatred, then I have to say that if mere pictures could incite hatred, then imagine how the Malays had felt watching those demonstrations in the flesh. In a way, that opinion is also acknowledging the fact that the opposition back then were stupid to do those kind of things.

The pictures were not doctored or superimposed version of what had happened. They were the pictures taken during the sad episode of our history.

Mind you, May 13 is not the only tragic episode of our colourful past. We had so many tragic events that laced our history.

I am quite perplexed with the many misguided comments in the last two articles. The whole gamut of reaction ranged from people chastising me as generalising the chinese; all the way to the extent of degrading these articles as trying to fulfil Umno’s agenda.

My friends, never in my articles that I blamed the whole chinese citizens of this country during the 1969 episode. If you feel that you are one of the ‘extremists’, the ‘communists’ or the ‘chauvinists’ and feel disgusted with me pointing out the behaviours of the hooligans back then, I must say, shame on you. Bear in mind, I have not come to the part of the Malays retaliating yet. I do not condone killings nor do I condone vile racial insults. But the former did not happen without the latter. And that is a fact.

I was really disheartened when one of the commentator said that there is nothing wrong for the victors to celebrate their victory. I find it terribly wrong for this to even be uttered by a person that has been a Malaysian all his (her) life. It is as if he (she) had been living in a vacuum and had the unfortunate fate of not knowing what is in history.

This is one of the very thing I tried to point out. History should be learned in totality. Not just to look at it from a book that had omitted several crucial facts.

Coming back to this opinion that there is nothing wrong to celebrate, the obvious answer is yes, there is nothing wrong at all. But to celebrate it by insulting the Malays, chanting hateful and obscene words were not only racially distasteful, it is illegal everywhere else in the world.

Martin Luther King made anti Black movements illegal back in United States in the 60’s. But here, some lost souls think that the act of committing all these hate crimes by the demonstrators in the funeral procession and victory parade are ALLOWABLE? Are they bereft of their senses? If calling an afro american a ‘negro’ is  considered offensive, what more calling the whole Malay race as ‘babi’ and other repugnant names? How more racist do you want to be?

To show how hypocritical the foreign correspondents were during the outbreak of hate filled demonstrations and victory parades, they issued articles claiming that democracy is alive in Malaysia. Kua Kia Soong wrote in his book (pg 42);

“On the night of 11th and 12th May, the Opposition celebrated their victory. In particular, a large Gerakan procession welcomed the left wing Gerakan leader V. David back from winning the federal seat in Penang.

Foreign correspondents in Kuala Lumpur who observed the elections filled dispatches praising the Malaysian democratic process and predicting five years of peace, prosperity and more efficient government.”

Imagine if it was in America, and instead of those chauvinist chinese, it was thousands of racist White American who had hold such demonstrations and calling names to the black community there.

Imagine what would have happened.

And yet, Kua Kia Soong, with his insipid references of hypocritical foreign news was trying his best to deflect what is a known fact and blame it to other people in its entirety!

And what is this fact?

Let me describe further.

Kua Kia Soong, in his book stated that (in pg. 39):

“The state’s racially discriminatory policies only served to create further divisions among the people and the 1969 election results clearly reflected this growing polarisation”

This is akin as saying that the Alliance is racist (Much like how the Pakatan is calling BN as racist). Kua Kia Soong’s constant underlying principle is that the BN especially Umno are all racist in nature.

He stated that the opposition during that time (and till this day) were multi racial and wanted to break up communal politics. In my mind, Kua Kia Soong is a delusional writer.

His hate towards the Malays are so great he could not even see the truth. Instead he turned a blind eye towards his own parties’ racist tendencies. How so?

Well, right after the 1969 elections, the purported ‘multi racial’ chinese based opposition parties were the ones shouting racist slurs and verbal diatribe of extreme insults to the Malays!

Was that the mark of non racist political party? You had just won several seats more in a general election and the first thing that came to mind was to unceremoniously tell the Malays to their faces that they need to pack up and stay in the jungles?

Is this a mark of a non-racist multi racial political party Dr Kua Kia Soong? What do you, dear readers think?

Yes, you missed this pertinent fact because in his book, he did not say all these. In fact, he tried to accuse the Alliance as racist instead! Hello!

Whenever BN won big in general elections, did Umno hold rallies to kick out the chinese? When MCA won big in 1999 or in 1990, did they tried to kick out the Malays?

Since the first general elections of 1955, have the Alliance or the BN acted like racist animals during their victory celebrations?

Now, I know the truth hurts, especially among the racist amongst us. But this is all in our history books. That is why when people like Kua Kia Soong was trying so hard to paint a different picture through his own historical revision, I find it is imperative to straighten this out.

Some even said that there is nothing wrong having a communist idealogy. Let me once and for all say this. Communism is banned here in Malaysia (and 95% of the countries around the world). What more with the fact that communists had committed many atrocities against our own people. Thousands had died from their hands through terrified means. If people are condoning this type of movement, then sorry to say, I fear for the opposition parties who had been infiltrated by communist elements.

Anyway, what happened has happened. We just have to accept it as it is. So that our younger generation can realise that freedom of speech is dangerous without a sense of responsibility. That is why the commentator whom had said that there is nothing wrong for the DAP and Gerakan supporters to celebrate their victory back then was greatly misguided. He (she) should know by now that freedom of speech ala Western culture only applies as to when it is beneficial to them.

Therefore, I find it disgusting for Kua Kia Soong to rely only on foreign correspondents to justify his subversive racism. For instance, he said on page 38;

The important thing to note is that despite the election results, there was absolutely no reason for any spontaneous outbreak of communal rioting as a result of the elections. This was observed by FEER correspondent T.G McGee:

“On the face of it, the results of the 1969 election should not have provided a catalyst for the communal rioting which ensued. True, MCA had lost some support of the majority of Chinese. True, Umno had lost some support among the Malays. But these trends should merely have served as indicators to the Alliance Party of the inadequacy of its policies for building a multi racial society. They need not be interpreted as an irrevocable disenchantment with the Alliance Party or the successful manoeuvring of another party or parties to overthrow the existing Government.”

Kua Kia Soong postulated that based only on this report by this foreign journalist, there was nothing wrong being committed by the opposition parties and the riot on May 13th was unprovoked and spontaneous!

Plus, this journalist said that the peaceful balance of social harmony conceptualised under the Alliance was inadequate. I would love to tell this T.G. McGee that the threat of this successful multi racial concept of the Alliance came from the racist Labour Party, DAP and Gerakan! They threw insults to Alliance using racial propaganda and got the citizens all riled up! Why? So that they can topple the government!

To me, either the foreign journalist was blind, or could not relate what the chauvinistic mobs were shouting, or having an ulterior agenda to weaken the government further. Subsequently, Kua Kia Soong picked this news and opined that it was the Alliance who were racist. And not only that, please be aware that those racist mobs back then did not insult Umno. From eye witnesses and verified reports written in Tunku’s and other books I stated earlier, these people insulted the whole Malay race!

And today, Kua Kia Soong is writing this twisted side of history in his book so that people including you and me will believe that this propaganda of his is the true story. And if there are readers out there try to rebut this logic, then I am sure there are indeed hatemongers living among us.

Dear readers, I am rebutting his book using facts from books he himself had used to strengthen his hypothesis. I am not creating new theories. I am presenting the facts as what had happened. In fact, readers should have known that from the weaknesses in his statements that I exposed during the first two articles, he made a disservice to himself and to the credibility of his book.

For how could you say one thing and then provide a flimsy evidence that did not conform  and substantiate  with what you said in the first place? Surely it does not make any sense.

Please know that there are elements in Malaysia that tries to disrupt the social harmony in Malaysia using this racist tactic of deflection. Honestly, this book is one of them. Anyone by now should know that after reading this book, it’s only purpose is to create anger among the chinese towards the Malays and its leadership. This book is to instill the loathing towards the Malays via telling lies that the mass killings of Malays and chinese started by Umno and it was an unprovoked attack by a racist governing party.

In the end, the young generation will grow up hating not only BN, but importantly, Umno and Malays as well. This organised strategy of weakening the Malays were carefully meted out using subversive and untruth elements disguised as freedom of speech and anti racism.

In 2007, after Kua Kia Soong successfully launched a book which had ultimately condemned Tun Abdul Razak and all the Malays as chinese killers while at the same time paint a different story that all the opposition supporters back then were peaceful and innocent, Hindraf came out with their lies to create anger among the Indians towards the Malays.

Their memorandum was intentionally done to arouse this anger. The word government will be preceded with the word ‘Malay’ or ‘Umno’ everytime it appears. For instance, Malay government practises ‘ethnic cleansing’ of indians in Malaysia.

We know that this is not true. But adding the specific connotation that it was all the Malays’ fault will have the desired effect of arising suspicion and hate by the indians towards Malays and BN in general. It is statistically impossible to have any ethnic cleansing of indians in Malaysia since the number of indian population in this country is steadily rising every year!

It is an enough statistical evidence to expunge what Hindraf is accusing. But even highly intellectual people like doctors, engineers and lawyers believe this impossibility.

Now, these racist elements had achieved the success of getting the chinese (via Kua Kia Soong’s book) and the indians (via Hindraf) to revolt against the BN. How could people be so blind? But of course, whenever the Malays or Umno try to defend themselves, they are labeled as racists while the real propagators of racism are deemed as saints.

I conclude with the fact that history belongs to all of us. It does not belong to Umno, DAP, Kua Kia Soong or the Hindraf. It belongs to all Malaysians.

For better or for worse, it is part of us. Whether the history showed us the glorious and the best of our achievements, or our darkest deeds and shameful acts, it is OUR OWN history. We must embrace it, learn from it and make the best out of it. Do not let other foreigners or other non patriotic people to change it, twist it or tell us otherwise. Our history is our own.

We all know that this blotch of our history was forgiven by both sides of the aggrieved parties. The outcome of the riots made us stronger and unified us to achieve even greater feats than before.

These few articles of mine merely wanting to set right on what were wronged. Thank you.