On 24 September 1999, I wrote a very long article on May 13 for the PAS party newspaper, Harakah. Those who may not have read it yet can read it below. It was republished in the Free Anwar Campaign website in January 2003. Also read what Tunku Abdul Rahman had to say in ‘The Tunku Tapes’.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The Tunku on how "May 13" began
From his residence in Penang, 1972:
“It was clear to me as well as the police that in the highly charged political atmosphere after the police were forced to kill a Chinese political party worker on May 4th, 1969, something was bound to happen to threaten law and order because of the resentment towards the Government by the KL Chinese on the eve of the general election. This was confirmed at this man’s funeral on the 9th May when the government faced the most hostile crowd it had ever seen.
Therefore, when the opposition parties applied for a police permit for a procession to celebrate their success in the results of the general election, I was adamant against it because the police were convinced that this would lead to trouble.
I informed Tun Razak about this and he seemed to agree. Now, without my knowledge and actually “behind my back,” there were certain political leaders in high positions who were working to force me to step down as a PM. I don’t want to go into details but if they had come to me and said so I would gladly have retired gracefully.
Unfortunately, they were apparently scheming and trying to decide on the best way to force me to resign. The occasion came when the question of the police permit was to be approved.
Tun Razak and Harun Idris, the MB of the state of Selangor, now felt that permission should be given knowing fully well that there was a likelihood of trouble. I suppose they felt that when this happened they could then demand my resignation.
To this day I find it very hard to believe that Razak, whom I had known for so many years, would agree to work against me in this way. Actually, he was in my house as I was preparing to return to Kedah and I overhead him speaking to Harun over the phone saying that he would be willing to approve the permit when I left. I really could not believe what I was hearing and preferred to think it was about some other permit. In any case, as the Deputy Prime Minister in my absence from KL, he would be the Acting PM and would override my objection. Accordingly, when I was in my home in Kedah, I heard over the radio that the permit had been approved.
It seems as though the expected trouble was anticipated and planned for by Harun and his UMNO Youth. After the humiliating insults hurled by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, and after the seeming loss of Malay political power to them, they were clearly ready for some retaliatory action. After meeting in large numbers at Harun’s official residence in Jalan Raja Muda near Kampong Bahru and hearing inflammatory speeches by Harun and other leaders, they prepared themselves by tying ribbon strips on their foreheads and set out to kill Chinese. The first hapless victims were two of them in a van opposite Harun’s house who were innocently watching the large gathering. Little did they know that they would be killed on the spot.
The rest is history. I am sorry but I must end this discussion now because it really pains me as the Father of Merdeka to have to relive those terrible moments. I have often wondered why God made me live long enough to have witnessed my beloved Malays and Chinese citizens killing each other.”
The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 1) http://www.freeanwar.net/jan2003/article020103.htm
The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 2) http://www.freeanwar.net/jan2003/article080103.htm
The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 3) http://www.freeanwar.net/jan2003/article170103.htm
The REAL Story of May 13 (Part 4) http://www.freeanwar.net/jan2003/article300103.htm
Translated into Chinese at: http://ccliew.blogspot.com/2011/05/blog-post_5160.html
written by AlwaysFair, May 14, 2011 19:59:45
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written by arazak, May 14, 2011 11:06:23
"LIke father, like son". Now he is giving the machete to Utusan and Perkosa to run amok as they pleases without any impunity.
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written by Goostee, May 14, 2011 08:18:49
Sorry, I was so emotional that I could not properly phrase the conclusion for my earlier comments to this very revealing piece from you. I'd like to rephrase it as " Al-hamdulillah, I can now take comfort to know that Allah had in fact answered my curse even before he was buried for good. And, for those who keep on plundering my share of the country's wealth, I pray that Allah repays me back in the hereafter."
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written by doomsday, May 14, 2011 04:16:31
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written by Wisdom above, May 13, 2011 22:43:35
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written by truthbespoken, May 13, 2011 20:25:10
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written by Goostee, May 13, 2011 18:12:35
I have not read this before. How dirty can they be. No wonder I never trusted Razak. I had suspected something funny that he died out of a sudden. It struck my mind that it must be Allah's way of striking back at someone's evil deeds.
Earlier on, on May 13, 1969 itself, I had been cursing at those responsible for the May 13 incident as I, my wife, my two children, and my two Chinese Office mates also nearly got killed out of their stupidity. Earlier that evening, my family had hitched a ride in the Chinese friend's car from PJ to visit my wife's uncle at the Hospital Besar in KL. My family could have become innnocent victims as we cruised through the busy Jalan Pudu or my Chinese friends could have been killed as we passed through Jalan Pekeliling, if not for some strokes of luck. Alhamdulillah, my curse has somewhat been answered at last.
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written by Concerned_Citizen, May 13, 2011 17:49:10
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written by imanj, May 13, 2011 17:39:59
But you know how it is here..even Mother's Day is haram...Had a young Malay girl post her own thesis and views with the heading ' Hari Ibu adalah haram "..on FB.The tite itself is offending and a sedition..How does a day that brings joy to many people could be considered ' haram '..? As ' haram ' is what's that not good and forbidden in Islam..Who made forced Muslims to adopt the ways of non-muslims?
I was offended by the post and had much to say,like I will say this to the unecessary claim by this guy called Bulldog..WHy do these Malays adopt ways of non-malays..like a name Bulldog that isnt Malay...well that's not important really..call themselves whatever but I am sure the Honourable Tunku would have been so devastated if he lived to see the crap now...!!
Our First Prime Minister woud have said how could anyone overlook the attribute of appreciation..for if it was not for other races and relgions we would have not progressed,the Malays would not have progressed by merely their own efforts for its impossible..for right now the Malays are apart of what the world by non-Malays and non-Musims have to offer...And he would have said the one thing ' Haram ' that is learnt quickly is corruption...!
What can you say when its obvious...
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written by Chimera, May 13, 2011 17:09:51
My dad told me....if they had all the mix marriages those days..today there would be bangsa Malaysia... instead of all dis... 2nd class..citizenship....bla bla.. most of the people in our generation..we are more free thinker than religious... Sometimes when ppl fight based on religion...we used to think...do this guys seriously think there is so call "GOD" exist..den why dun he come n repair his mess...I think religious has less "humanity"... and racism has no "humanity" at all...
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written by Fart Fart Wah, May 13, 2011 17:06:23
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written by Nixcloud, May 13, 2011 16:57:51
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written by educationist, May 13, 2011 16:18:38
But to those of us of the Merdeka era, that event is forever seared in our collective memory.
Yet, the political tsunami of 308 has shown that despite the use of fear tactics , the rakyat has risen above this underhanded tactic of the uMNOputras and shown them the middle finger.
However recent events have shown how desparate the UMNOputras are to cling to power:witness the PERKASA private militia sponsored by the government, the racialism and extremist slants of their mouthpieces and now the use of religous bigotry.
No, history had shown that the UMNOputras are prepared to push the nation over the abyss in their attempt to hold on to poweer!!
So, prudence and counter measures must be the order of the day!!
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written by Atheist, May 13, 2011 16:04:39
TDM had a very good IGP i.e. Tun Haniff. What kind of IGP does Najib have? " The road to hell is paved with good intentions" in Malaysia
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written by Hanuman, May 13, 2011 15:48:36
If the leaders have any sense of responsibility, they will not allow this to happen again. I don't blame the youths for what happened. I hold the leaders for inflamming this sensitive issue and not uniting the rakyats for whatever ulterior motives they may have.
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written by earthman, May 13, 2011 15:47:58
We need to change our perceptions of life on earth. Are we here to compete with each other or to develop the earth for all? All the problem happened because the people can't see the light and truth.For their eyes are blinded by sin and their heart hardened like rock. Only if we follow the Way, the Truth and the Life will we ever see paradise.
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written by Ken Liew, May 13, 2011 15:27:06
Malaysia Is an OLD country, with OLD BRAINS as leaders....
This is really shit.... when after so long, Malaysia never evolved a bit...... Thanks to our LONG running leaders.... who never want to improve.....
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I suspect that history is repeating itself, this time again the number 2 is conspiring to bring down the present PM again.
I suspected that those Christian PM and other racial issues are actually played up by those aligned to the number 2. Najid certainly wants a conducive environment to hold the GE, and he can make use his right to pick election candidates to install his men into various positions. The ultimate losers when this happened will be DPM and his supporters like TDM, Mukriz, and others. Therefore the best strategy for them is to create many hot issues until Najid can not call for GE13, and hopefully this drag until next year, then UMNO election will need to be carried out first and the results should be quite predictable if the UMNO leadership remained as it is now.
No wonder the Christian PM issue was played up by the Big Dog aka the running dog of TDM.
So if Najid and Hishamemuddin are not alert enough and take the right action against those fanning the racial fire, soon they will be dead meat. But probably this is destined to happened since Najid's father has already planted the root of evil deed, and he is to repay it.
God always have His way.