Politicians linked to Malaysia's May 13 riots

Politicians linked to Malaysia's May 13 riots
1969 violence aimed at Chinese: academic

BARADAN KUPPUSAMY in Kuala Lumpur
South China Morning Post

Declassified British embassy despatches suggest Malaysia's May 13 riots of
1969, in which hundreds of ethnic Chinese were killed, were organised by
Malay political leaders and were not a spontaneous reaction to
provocation,
as conventional wisdom claims.

"It was a coup d'etat against Tunku," said academic Kua Kia Soong,
referring
to independent Malaya's first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, a Malay
aristocrat accused of being pro-Chinese.

Dr Kua released his findings yesterday on the anniversary of the riots
after
spending three months going over the documents at the Public Record Office
in London.

He also released a 136-page book titled May 13: Declassified Documents on
the Malaysian Riots of 1969 .

The riots remain a hugely sensitive issue for Malaysia's ethnic Chinese
community, which makes up about 30 per cent of the population. Dr Kua, the
director of the Centre for Ethnic Studies, blamed then-deputy prime
minister
Abdul Razak and others for engineering the May 13 violence and subsequent
coup which brought down Malaysia's old order.

"The riot was just a backdrop to seize power," he said.

The documents reveal that Malay hoodlums were taken into Kuala Lumpur and
allowed to rampage through Chinese areas, burning and killing non-Malays,
said Dr Kua.

He said the despatches, between the mission in Kuala Lumpur and London,
also
showed that the multi-ethnic police force was impartial when putting down
the riot - but the all-Malay army units stood by and let the mayhem
happen.

Local Malays, the despatches said, were incensed and angered by the
"invasion of the Malay hoodlums" but were unable to stop the killing.

Officially about 260 people, mostly Chinese, were killed, with many
suffering gunshot wounds. About 6,000 were injured and hundreds of
buildings
were burnt down.

One British Foreign Office document dated May 15, 1969, succinctly
concludes
that the riots were organised to "formalise Malay dominance, sideline the
Chinese and shelve the Tunku" government.

Another document dated May 17 from the High Commission to London said:
"The
tragedy is immense. >From our windows we see burning, destruction on a
wide
scale and bodies in rivers, fighting, machine-gun fire on crowds and above
all a sense of fear in what a week ago was a relatively happy city."

Within days Abdul Rahman had been stripped of all powers and he resigned a
year later. Razak took immediate control, suspended parliament, set up a
National Operations Council and took full charge. He restored
parliamentary
rule in 1974, however.

Most Malaysians reject the official version of the events, that non-Malay
politicians who won big in the 1969 general election had provoked Malays
into rioting.

"We all knew that the riots were engineered but now we have the evidence
...
the documents to prove it," said academic Syed Husin Ali.

"The government should allow a formal independent inquiry into the event
and
let the people know what really happened," he said. "We don't even know
the
names of the victims or where they are buried. How do we honour them?" he
said.

Yap Swee Seng, executive director of the Suaram human rights NGO, said:
"This event has been hanging over us like a dagger ... it's time the
people
are told the truth."

His calls were echoed by rights activist Elizabeth Wong. "We are all
Malaysians, we need closure of this sad event. Let us all learn the truth
and carry forward." The "May 13 incident", as school text books refer to
it,
is rarely discussed publicly.

Periodically, government officials raise the spectre of May 13 as a
warning
of what could happen if "Malay tolerance" collapses.

Dr Kua's revelations come at a low point in Malay-Chinese relations, after
Chinese academics questioned the need to continue "Malays-first"
affirmative
action policies.

Ironically, the government also chose yesterday's 38th anniversary of the
riots to launch a comprehensive five-year plan to close the race gap and
end
racial enmity. The National Action Plan for Unity and Integration was
launched by the Malay king.

The government has promised to promote respect for the law, racial
tolerance, religious understanding and fairness and justice.

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