4.

0 LITERATURE REVIEW

Malaysia has always been a country of many races and culture, ranging from Malay, Chinese, and
Indians to name the least. Today, everyone can be seen living in peace and harmony together in
the same community. However, it was not always the same, before Malaysia has had its fair share
of racial tensions. One biggest racial event that had happened that changed Malaysia and will be
in every history book is the 13th May incident. One of the biggest racial events that lead to 196
deaths as of official data, but independent reporters and other observers estimated up to ten times
as many people had died. Three quarters of the casualties were Chinese Malaysians, and 6000 of
them were left homeless after fires. (Kua, 2007)

4.1 The Cause of the Event

The 1960s had been an eventful decade for Malaysia, though the Alliance thought they had nothing
to worry about for the 1969 general elections as they were preparing for a renewal, and as far as
they were concerned the 1969 general elections would be a routine affair. The Alliance had won
the previous general election of 1964 and in 1965 they had casted off Singapore, the economy was
fine and there was no confrontation among Indonesia. Their confidence would surely end on May
11th, 1969, when the results of the May 10th elections were known. Opposition supporters,
especially the Chinese and Indians who had voted for the DAP and Gerakan were jubilant. And
they showed it. They celebrated their “victories” by marching through Kuala Lumpur and in their
exuberance shouted insulting epithets at Malays living near the city fringes. They even showed
vulgar gestures at Malay women. Gerakan would later get police permission for 1000 party
member demonstrations on May 12th. Word got around quickly, and that number would later
increase to 4000. Therefore, the taunts would begin on the day of the demonstrations towards the
Malay as insults such as “Melayu balik kampung, kita sudah berkuasa sekarang” and “Hey Sakai
bolih balik ke hutan” would be thrown around. (Zainon, 2007)

Meanwhile, groups of Malays from outside Kuala Lumpur gathered at Selangor Mentri Besar
Datuk Harun Idris’ house in Kampung Baru. They urged Harun to lead a victory demonstration to
show they had not lost power. Soon, street clashes broke out between them and Chinese and Indian
youths. Parang, sticks and iron pipes were used. Most of the Malay demonstrators made it to
Harun’s house where exaggerated versions of what happened had already reached the 5,000 people
gathered there. Word of what happened in Setapak and Kampung Baru spread and within hours
the whole city was engulfed in communal rioting the size of which had never been experienced by
the country before. The worst of the rioting burned itself out during that first night. (Teoh, 2014)

4.2 Where it Happened

Most of these would happen in Kuala Lumpur, the Kampung Baru and Setapak Area. As Beh Lih
Yi reported (2007), most fighting happened close to Kampung Baru, whereas two Chinese lorries
were burnt. He continued by mentioning a group of demonstrators all grouped up at Jalan Raja
Muda and Batu Road, there were more smashed vehicles and burnt Chinese houses. Chinese and
Indian co-workers at Batu Road have merged into an 'area defense team' armed with whatever they
can achieve machetes, wood, iron bars and bottles.

4.3 The Aftermath

This event affected a lot of people of many races here in Malaysia especially those in the affected
area. One mother of Melayu descent recounts the time in which she had felt during the whole
debacle, she remembers of the time she had heard when the first news of when Melayu and Chinese
were killing each other. They had fled their homes to find safety as they feared for their life. After
the event had happened she would remember of a big flood in Kuala Lumpur in which people
dubbed it was to “clean” Kuala Lumpur’s street of all the hatred (Nizha, 2016).

On May 14, a state of Emergency was declared, and Parliament was suspended indefinitely.
Sporadic small clashes continued after May 14 and they fizzled out only after about a month. The
last serious outbreak was between Malays and Indians on June 28 in Kuala Lumpur in which five
people were killed. On May 16, Tunku Abdul Rahman effectively stepped aside as emergency
powers to rule by decree were temporarily placed in the hands of a National Operations Council
(NOC) headed by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak. In January 1970, Tun Razak set up a National
Consultative Council to find ways to promote and strengthen racial harmony so that normalcy
would return, and Parliament restored (Zainon, 2007). On September 21, the Tunku retired as
prime minister, depressed and sad that the racial harmony he had devoted much of his political life
to strengthen had collapsed under his watch. Tun Razak succeeded Tunku as the country’s second
prime minister, and eventually the NOC came to an end after 21 months, and Parliament convened
again on February 23, 1971. In 1971 he also stepped down as president of UMNO after virulent
criticism by the Malay “Young Turks,” headed by Mahathir Mohamad, the future Prime Minister.
The same year the government enunciated the New Economic Policy and began aggressive
affirmative action programs to advance the economic and educational level of Malays. (Bowring,
2007)
 REFERENCES

Kua, K. S. (2007). May 13: Declassified documents on the Malaysian riots of 1969. Suaram.

Teoh, E. S. (2014). May 13: How do we remember the darkest day in Malaysian history?.
http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-news/may-13-how-do-we-remember-darkest-day-
malaysian-history-35715

Zainon Ahmad (2007). The tragedy of May 13, 1969. The Sun.

Beh, L. Y. (2007). Mendedahkan punca sebenar rusuhan 13 Mei.

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/67120

Nizha Periaswamy (2016) Kenangan 13 Mei: Kuala Lumpur kota ‘bunuh’.

https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/bahasa/2016/05/13/kenangan-13-mei-
kuala-lumpur-kota-bunuh/

Bowring, P. (2007). May 13: Digging up the Racial Past. Asia Sentinel, 16.