Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
Malaysiakini : I based the article on an earlier one I wrote 10 years before that,
in 2009, the 40th anniversary, carrying the same title when I was
managing editor at The Star. There is a reference to that article in this blog but the article has since been removed, together with my other articles, for reasons best known to the newspaper.
Both articles advocated putting the incident behind us and moving on in the true spirit of multi-racialism in the country.
But
after 15 years, I have changed my mind about forgetting the past with
increasing accounts not being true to the events. It is important to
remember the roots of the incident before we can put it behind us and
find appropriate solutions going forward. That’s part of closure.
Conflicting accounts
The
official line is that it was a spontaneous outpouring of emotion by the
Malay community in response to grave provocation by opposition parties
who had made much progress in the 1969 election.
Others say it was
a carefully orchestrated plot by the ruling Alliance, dominated by Umno
and supported by MCA and MIC, to stay in power with the ostensible aim
of stability for the country. Somewhere in between lies the truth.
There
was a victory demonstration by the opposition on May 12, 1969, for
which, uncharacteristically, police permission was given. Some accounts
say that Tunku Abdul Rahman, the then-prime minister who stepped down in
1970 after the May 13 riots, did not know about the permission given.
Subsequently,
Umno wanted to hold its victory parade and plans were made for a big
one at the then Selangor chief minister Harun Idris’ residence, in
Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur on May 13. There are conflicting accounts
after this.
Some maintained that rumours of killings and other
news resulted in the crowd gathered at Harun’s house going out of
control. Others talk of a controlled event to express outrage which went
out of control. Others speak of a conspiracy.
Those
interested in understanding May 13 should read these accounts of the
riots which make fascinating, insightful, frank, but disturbing reading.
They are honest accounts of what happened, many of them from
eyewitnesses.
Setbacks
Following
the polls on May 10, 1969, in Peninsular Malaysia, indications were
that the ruling Alliance made up of Umno, MCA, and MIC were on the brink
of losing their two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time
ever.
In the peninsula, at the close of voting on May 10, they had
won 66 out of 114 seats, or 59 percent, far short of the 67 percent
required for a two-thirds majority.
Not only that. They lost
Kelantan again to PAS and Penang for the first time since independence
to the brand new Gerakan which had made major inroads. The state
assembly in Selangor was tied at 14-14, while in Perak, no single party
or coalition had a majority. In Kedah and Terengganu too, there were
setbacks.
That was an unprecedented setback for the Alliance, the
predecessor to today’s BN, and a very unexpected surge in opposition
strength which caught both sides of the divide in total surprise.
The
Sabah and Sarawak elections were subsequently held in June and July
1969. Even with that, it was a little short of a two-thirds majority
after the polls, winning two-thirds only with a pledge by Sarawak’s SUPP
to join it, as pointed out in this letter to the editor titled “Alliance didn't lose two-thirds in 1969”.
In
1970, Abdul Razak Hussein became the second prime minister. He brought
in one Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a strong critic of Tunku, back into Umno.
Mahathir, who lost in 1969, won a parliamentary seat in the 1974
election and became education minister, till now the fastest rise ever
in Umno.
Abdul Razak Hussein
Razak
forced a coalition of all parties (the DAP under Lim Kit Siang refused
to join) for the 1974 election in August which he won with a resounding
majority - 135 seats out of 154, an incredible 88 percent of seats. Less
than one and a half years later, in January 1976, Razak died of
leukaemia in the UK.
Hussein Onn took over as prime minister,
selecting Mahathir as his deputy. Mahathir moved from party outcast to
deputy prime minister in just seven years since being expelled from
Umno. In 1981, at Hussein’s retirement, Mahathir became prime minister,
the first non-lawyer to assume the position.
The ruling party held
the reins quite firmly until 2008, nearly four decades after May 13,
1969, when Selangor fell to the opposition for the first time along with
other states Penang, Kelantan, Kedah, and Perak.
Then came May
2018, just one year short of a half-century from May 13, 1969. BN lost
to Pakatan Harapan - a historic defeat for the ruling party.
It
has been a rather interesting story but there still needs to be an
unvarnished story about May 13, 1969, itself and why it happened. That
will help heal the injury caused to the psyche of the nation so as to
move forward with purpose and confidence.
It requires honesty,
gumption, and brave new writers, as well as a new maturity not yet here
to put the historical record right. We can’t depend on a government,
where Umno Baru calls many shots, to do right by all Malaysians,
especially on May 13 - it has to be an effort independent of the
government.
