Has the ghost of May 13 been laid to rest?
Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist of Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is published in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author)
WHEN the date May 13 approached at this time every year, I was overwhelmed by a gamut of complicated emotions. Yes, four days’ ago, we witnessed the 40th anniversary of that tragic incident in our nation’s half century history.
According to official record, the race riot broke out immediately after the 1969 general election, in which opposition parties made great gain at the poll, especially in Selangor and in the Parliament.
Again, according to official sources, the mostly Chinese opposition victory rallies in KL had provoked fear and anger among the Malays, and havoc and violence ruled the capital city, until a State of Emergency was declared, and order was restored by uniformed personnel. Many opposition legislators and leaders were detained under the ISA.
Democracy was suspended and the task of government was undertaken by a National Action Council headed by the then Deputy Prime Minister, the late Tun Abdul Razak.
In retrospect, many Malaysians looked to the former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for an explanation of why the May 13 incident came about.
In his once banned book The Malay Dilemma, Dr M caricatured the Malay race as a self effusive polite people who always bend backwards to accommodate other people. If they suffer from long-term insensitive insults, their repressed anger will then burst forth and they ‘mengamok’.
