May 13th - A Story To Remember
About a month ago when I was working in Kelab Sultan Sulaiman in Kg. Bharu, I had the opportunity to mingle with the old otai's (gangsters) of Kg Bharu. Well, I'm sure they're still quite otai today but many would say these are old timers who no longer practice hardcore otainess like they would have used to back in the day.
I was minding my own business doing my endless amount of photocopying on this old school copier and this short bald man in glasses started to talk to me. It was small talk at first and then when I told him my interest in politics and that I was currently reading the May 13th story he was very impressed, and excited because he was one of those malays who witnessed what & how exactly it all happened in Kg. Bharu. And today, I'd like to share it with all of you.
If we try to look for information on the May 13th tragedy today it would be pretty hard to find. This is due to the fact that the govt. had decided its best that we don't know about it. Even during the time that it happened, people knew that there were dead chinese and malay people but many didn't know how many exactly died and what exactly happened or even why.
For most Malaysians who studied in govt. school, If you look back into your history high school textbook, you would get a glimpse of the whole tragedy but you don't really know the true hardcore story. Believe me, when this dude told me what happened, I was pretty shocked.
May 11th 1969
The situation was tense in KL as the 1969 elections showed a major loss of seats in the parliament for the Alliance Party. As the opposition party celebrated, there were banners of insults like "Melayu Sudah Jatuh" and "Melayu Boleh Balik" being brought around the Kg. Bharu area which evidently taunted the Malays even though in actuallity Kg. Bharu did manage to secure one of the seats for the Alliance Party in the Parliament.
May 12th 1969
So they (the Malays of Kg. Bharu) decided that they too should celebrate their victory. They first went to an UMNO old timer veteran's place to see what his take on the whole insult situation was and whether they should have their own celebration/retaliation. The veteran said no, as he was scared of the situation that was to come. And then they headed to the Menteri Besar's house Dato' Harun Idris. And he was the one who gave the green light by allowing them to do a celebration probably without realizing what exactly was about to happen next. That night the air whispered all over peninsular Malaysia telling the out of KL Malays to come down for a battle.
The chinese weren't aware of this. They did it in hush tones. I guess at that time the technology was not hardcore enough to detect shit like this.
May 13th 1969
Kg. Bharu was filled with people. LOTS OF PEOPLE. They gathered in front of Dato' Harun's house waiting for orders. Malays from all over peninsular came in warrior clothes in all colors (according to their state color) armed with keris and parang and all the Malay traditional weapons including (apparently according to this dude) makhluk halus aka orang bunyan to help protect them from the dangers that were about to come. The gangsters of Kg. Bharu for the 1st time, united to fight for this very dark day. There were no guns involved because Malays couldn't afford any.
And so all hell broke loose. He didn't explain to me how exactly it all broke loose but the next thing that happened was definitely not the Sunday school version I had been reading in my history textbook.
Apparently rows of chinese houses were burnt on Jalan Sultan Ismail, Chow Kit got attacked and many Chinese people were killed. I can't remember where else they started fires, but apparently KL was literally on fire at the areas where they knew was heavily populated with chinese people. And because the chinese were caught by suprise, the amount of chinese people that died were not as many as the malays. He estimates that for every Malay that died 10 chinese people did. I was like, FUCK. Thats hardcore.
After May 13th...
By the time the Chinese people were gathering themselves to fight back the Army and Police had taken over. There were curfews and thats when they (the government) formed the MAGELAN which was supposed to figure out what the fuck went wrong.
Apparently what went wrong with this whole racial retaliation thing had to do with many factors but apparently the govt believed oh so very much that it had to do with the large economical gap that was going on between the Chinese and the Malays which caused the most unhappiness in the Malay community. The chinese seemed to conqeur the city whereas the Malays in the villages.
So thats when Tun Abdul Razak formed a new economical plan which changed the whole economical way of life the Malays used to lead back in the day.
Soon after Tunku Abdul Rahman resigned from office and gave way to Tun Razak to become Prime Minister.
In a way, I feel sorry for Tunku Abdul Rahman. His last days of office were really probably the saddest. I mean, Tun Dr. Mahathir had been banging on his weakness and the way everything seemed to be taken lightly by him. They somewhat blaimed him for the major lost of seats during the 1969 elections. His "Tak pa lah" attitude frustrated Tun Dr Mahathir and secretly many others. But many remember and respect him for he brought us to Independence. Hey, nobody's perfect right?
Anyways, the May 13th story really is one of the most important histories that has happened in Malaysia. As a kid I did always question what the hell is bumiputera and why we Malays got better privelleges than those who were none malays. Heck I shouldn't even actually say I'm pure Malay but somehow, I am.
So let me just say this to all the non malays out there, I am so proud of you and I apologize on behalf of the malays for what had happened in the past. I truly respect you guys for having to put up with all that crap and if there's anything I can do to help in the near future, I will.
And now to the Malays, guys, the government gave us so many economical opportunities. Treat it well and don't ever act like you own the damn country because honestly if it wasn't for what happened on that day most of you might still be stuck in the paddy fields cause as we all know, most (not all) malays are fucking lalangs. Yeah you are and you know it. That doesn't mean you can't change right? Another thing, respect the other races you lucky bastards!
I know racism is something that is not easily prevented especially in a multi racial country like ours. But let's keep tolerating each other shall we because tolerance is one of the keys to peace.
The End.
Labels: Thoughts of 2007
posted by nadzirahashim @ 8:02 PM
2 Comments:
very sensitive issue..nothing is ever black and white..look i agree that most malays are like lalang..but you also have to look back into history as to why they're like that..telling them to change is like telling raz to give up alcohol.. you have to understand tht the malays have gone through alot...before independence day came, the britsh segregated the 3 races and gave the malays restricted access to education. this was done so that they would not be able to claim independence. after independance the gov introduced those rancangan malaysia things..which for the first 30 years was based on improving malaysia. so in order to this they had to better houses, streets, drains etc..so the ppl back the were use to the idea that everything they asked for..the goverment gave. so imagine..a child that was borned during the first rancangan thingy would like 45 years old now..and all his life he's used to the goverment giving him everything he asks for..how do u change tht? he would thn pass this idealogy to his children and they would pass it on to theirs.. how do u change something like this?
btw, u dont have to apologize to the other races for what happ on may 13th..maybe ure otai friend didnt tell u..but many many malays were killed too more then they like to talk abt...did he tell u tht they sticked the malays head that they killed outside thier houses? what has happened has happened..all we can do is hope and make sure something like this doesnt happen..plus i dont see wht the chinese and indians in malaysia wanna complain about...they're def raking in the money...just look at the top 10 of malaysia's most wealthiest.. so why are they still complaining? plus we gave them something tht no other country in this world has...we gave them citizenship at independence..so what we gave special rights to the bumiputera's? it is our homeland..if ure not happy u can always go back to where you're ancestors came from..where do we go? life isnt always fair..but we just have to work with it..thr's something which they have an advantage on and there's some that we do..lets just work together instead of pointing fingers towards each other. its been 50 years since we've kicked the invaders out of OUR country, many of our ancestors died and sacrificed so that we would have a better future..they worked together regardless of their race thn..why cant we do it now when life is so much easier?
superbly useful information u have here naz.here's to another version of the story..whenever i ask my dad about it ofcourse,him being a Cina species would always tell the story about how the chinese were brutally murdered..and burnt.so i always wondered,was his side of the story reliable because not only was he still young then but,dammit,he's a darn cina himself.and i guess ur right.so long as this is a multi-racial community..its not so much of a choice but we simply just have to make it work,u know what i mean?and i think so far,it's been going on pretty well..sure there's a huge gap of inequality and supringly,a distinctive pattern on the economic divisions..but how do u study such patterns?do u trace the roots of the cause?or do u develop other sectors such as education so that people like u are created and hopefully,in the future,will create a difference..i guess the situation in malaysian isnt as bad as we think..its probably worst elsewhere.racism is so invisible,but its constantly there,whether we like it or not.the word 'racism' is over-rated.i think there's more to it.its human nature to be protective over their own kinds because i think that it gives them a sense of security.knowing that u belong to a superior group..does affect ur social status within a community.how fucked up is that?some people prefer to create their safety net by creating a group in which they feel a sense of belonging.i have always wondered why the information regarding May13th was ambiguous...so yeah,i like this post..lavs u.
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