A day of silence and contemplation on race and religion for our nation?
We do have a few thousands who died on May 13, 1969. We have an attitude of not wanting to know or discuss about it, seemingly for the benefit of the next generation. The business as usual on May 13 every year is like a collective amnesia with little or no impact on the next generation as a pertinent history lesson.
Kuo Yong Kooi, MM
World Environment Day is celebrated every year on June 5 to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Every August 6, “A-Bomb Day”, the city of Hiroshima holds the Peace Memorial Ceremony to console the victims of the atomic bombs and to pray for the realisation of lasting world peace.
By the same token Malaysia is in desperate need for a day or even a week to raise awareness on “positive steps to mend inter-religious and race relations”.
Blogger Anas Zubedy’s “let’s re-colour May 13” is a great starting point. It just needed a lending hand from some popular public figures so that we can expand and publicise the project and experiment it on a nationwide scale.
It is important that if we do choose to have a day or a week of interfaith dialogues annually, we need to open ourselves to many questions so that we can have more understanding on what spiritual growth and religiosity is.
We can have different themes annually to highlight the need for Malaysians from all walks of life to understand some basic terminologies. Themes like “What is the difference between spirituality and religious dogma?”
Once we can distinguish these two different terms is when we start to understand what is needed to be done on a personal level in instilling personal spiritual growth. In another year we can have another theme like “Is religiosity an inward journey or an outward journey?”
Malaysians from all walks of life can participate in a ceremony similar to the one in Hiroshima or the 9/11 commemoration day. We can modify that programme to suit our theme of May 13 victims.
The United States has got its ground zero memorial or The National September 11 Memorial & Museum. They hold their anniversary every year at ground zero to reflect and remember the 3,000 victims of 9/11.
We do have a few thousands who died on May 13, 1969. We have an attitude of not wanting to know or discuss about it, seemingly for the benefit of the next generation. The business as usual on May 13 every year is like a collective amnesia with little or no impact on the next generation as a pertinent history lesson.
Australia and New Zealand have an annual public holiday called Anzac Day on April 25. As a resident in Australia, I do not remember if I ever took part in an Anzac Day parade or the dawn service before. Initially I found it amusing where people commemorate their fallen soldiers who fought and died in other people’s wars. After a while I begin to realise that this is a good way to engage the younger generation to participate in learning and relating to history.
If we do have a commemoration day on May 13 which is widely participated all across the nation, it can be an effective learning and reflective tool for us to relate to this tragic event in our nation’s history. At the moment we are being spoon-fed history from the Umno perspective only. Some other alternative perspectives are available on this site.
On that commemorative day if the rakyat chooses to use May 13 as the day, the mass media or the alternative Internet media (if the present government does not wish to participate) can replay documentaries on real accounts of events or interview people who survived and witnessed what happened.
Interview historians and politicians on their account of that day; like the one Lim Kit Siang wrote to counter “Tanda Putera’s” dramatised account of what happened. It is a good reference point for open participation and interpretation of history. After all history belongs to all of us, not to a specific political party.
A sombre day that encourages all participants to reflect on what happened on May 13, 1969 can be a good starting point for us to reflect as this year’s Ramadan has highlighted a new height in deteriorating inter-faith and race relations.
If we do not work on the annual “collective introspection” seriously, we are not likely to learn from history. We are not encouraging our young to actively participate and relate to an event that changed the direction of our nation’s history.
If we do make an effort, we may be able to contribute positively and make new history because we can instil that into our collective national psyche for generations to come.
