Unspun readers Kamarul and Shamsul were threatening to hijack the discussion thread at Rasa Not so Sayang when Unspun asked them whether they would like to duke it out in a new thread. Since Kamarul initiated the idea, would he care to send Unspun something to post to start the discussion? He complied and sent Unspun the post below.
(Note: This posting and discussion thread is meant for people adult enough to discuss and to disagree without getting their knickers in a twist. It concerns race and some topics which may be considered taboo in Malaysia. It is not meant to incite, as the government often claims for discussions of such a nature, racial hatred, but understanding between people with different viewpoints. Having said that those joining thi discussion please adhere to the elements of skillful communications – if you disagree, state opinion and substantiate, no name calling, avoid emotive words, avoid ad hominem attacks. Other than that, enjoy yourselves.
“The May 13 was a pretext for staging that coup… I am not the first person who said it was a coup d’etat but I am providing the documents to show how it was a coup d’etat.” (11 May 2007, “Unveiling the ‘May 13′ riots”, Malaysiakini.com)
The papers and Malaysiakini have highlighted his main conclusion, that May 13th was an orchestrated coup d’etat by Tun Razak and his gang of thugs, brought on by the aspirations of an ascendant state Malay capitalist class.
I think the book may have been more balanced if it examined Chinese attitudes leading up to the riots, especially of the collusion of Chinese “big businessmen” with a pro-British UMNO under Dato Onn to maintain the status quo, because I think it needs to be stressed that no one came out clean prior to the riots. And certainly, the British didn’t come out clean after the riots.
The most controversial chapter happens to be at the heart of the book, in Chapter 3, where Dr Kua draws from sources declassified from the British High Commission and dispatches from various parties on the scene which help narrate, in chronological order, the events that occurred during the rioting. Reading that chapter was like reading a book of facts relayed with too many dark hints, and detailing none of the visceral horror the Chinese and Indians must have felt during those benighted days.
I think we all know the conclusions following the rioting: the institution of an emergency government, the curtailing of dissent, arrests and threats to opposition leaders, manufactured lies about the causes of May 13th, and so on. Many of the policies instituted during following the riots have not changed, and Dr Kua takes the time to point them out. After almost forty years, I think its about time things changed.
If you believe the dispatches from the British High Commission and other foreign journalists, then you will have to conclude that their witness of events during the May 13th riots of 1969 bears out the conclusions Dr Kua puts forward in his book. I found no reason to disbelieve those dispatches, and therefore, I can only say:
I want justice for those who died during the May 13th riots.
I want justice, and I hope to God you want justice, too. Support for the formation of an investigative Royal Commission
Kamarul 15 Syawal 1428 H
Unspun 
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