5 Malays tell us their side of the shocking events on May 13th 1969

(This article is a collection of stories from our brothers and sisters at Soscili and some of the stories we couldn’t use for our earlier article on May 13th experiences)

For a lot of Malaysians, the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing the date 13th of May is a dark event that happened 48 years ago. In 1969, the long-brewing racial tension finally exploded, resulting in one of the greatest tragedies to ever befall Malaysians.

The racial riots officially caused 200 lives to be lost, although some claim it much higher. While there are plenty of sites and news stories that offer an explanation of what really happened, those of us born  after the 13th May event (e.g. everyone at CILISOS) may not understand what exactly caused it. All that we know about the incident are what had been passed down to us through reports, blogs and stories from the survivors. Two years ago, we collected some both chilling, and uplifting stories from our readers and their parents, but with a noticeable lack of stories from the Malay populace.

Therefore, our friends from SOSCILI and us interviewed a few Malays who experienced the incident first-hand to get closer to what really happened. As we’ve been told…

Note: All pictures used were sourced online and meant for emphasis. The age of our interviewees back in 1969 are highlighted in orange.

Fauziah Samad, 61 (13 years old) – The Malay family in a Chinese neighbourhood

Fauziah’s house was right behind Chong Hwa High School on Jalan Gombak, about 20 minutes from Chow Kit, where alot of the conflicts took place.

“There’s only two Malay houses (including ours) and one Muslim Indian house. Everybody else is Chinese. We all lived there in harmony.”

3 days before the riots, She went with her mom to one of their Chinese neighbours, having not seen her for the last 24 hours. They found her sleeping in the house, but upon shaking her leg, and seeing no response, realised that she had passed on. That night, her father helped their Chinese neighbours to set up lights and a canopy in her house for the proceedings. A few days later though, more dramatic events took place.

“Fight… Fight…” one of our Chinese neighbors said while running to join his other friends. Dad called my little brother and asked him to listen in to their conversation. My little brother went to a Chinese school, so he could understand them.

“The Malays and the Chinese are fighting, at Setapak and Kampung Baru!” little brother said. Setapak was just 10 minutes away from our house!”

Her father went pale, and her mom started crying. From the extreme shock, her knees went weak, and she came down with a fever. Outside her house, she saw “the Chinese cutting steel pipes and sharpening then by scraping them on the tarred road.” When her father stuck his head out for a look, a Chinese neighbour quickly asked him to go back inside and close the doors and windows. “It’s dangerous!”, he said. The family barely slept a wink that night. However, upon finding our that Fauziah’s mother was sick, the mood changed a bit.

“Not an hour after that, one of our neighbors came, carrying some medicine he bought at a shop. Then another neighbor came with a sack of potatoes as a truck carrying potatoes on the way to Pahang was stranded due to the curfew in our area. So, all the potatoes were given out among the inhabitants, including us. What I know is I can’t forget my Chinese neighbors at the small settlement behind the Chong Hwa High School till this day. If it weren’t for kind and harmonious neighbors, my family and I won’t be alive today.”

On racial relationships today

“After the 13th of May, we still live there, but now the area had been developed into a condominium. The place where I live today is also diverse; there are Chinese families around our house. There is also an Indian family living right in front of our house.

We always exchange pleasantries and everything is fine. If we went back to our hometown, the family next door helped feed our cat and if the Indian family in front went for a holiday, we helped feed their dog in turn.

I only miss the closeness with our neighbors at Gombak. It’s a friendliness that you can’t buy. There is actually a sense of loving each other among the races in Malaysia. It’s just the nasty people sharing slanderous remarks on social media that’s making things worse.”

[This story is also told by Mrs Fauziah on her blog.]

Khamis, 77 (31 years old) – With a wife who was 9 months pregnant

In 1969, Khamis worked as an assistant lecturer at Universiti Malaya, and stayed at a terrace house in Section 14. As they were driving around on May 13, they realised that the cars around them were moving very fast.

“When we reached home, the late Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister, almost in tears, was speaking over TV Malaysia. He was expressing his utmost sadness over what was happening. He announced that Perintah Berkurung (the curfew) was in force with immediate effect.”

While the curfew affected everyone, Khamis’ household had an additional concern – his wife was in the final months of having their first baby. Thankfully they had bought supplies from the market the week before. Unfortunately, they were short of kerosene for their lamps.

“Fortunately, our neighbor, a Chinese family, from Penang, kindly gave us some of the kerosene we needed… a good sign of racial harmony between my family and hers.”

He also went to the PJ Police Station to ask for advice about his wife’s condition. Thankfully they gave Khamis a special permit, so that they could go to the hospital if needed.

“It was given to me that I could use to go to the University Hospital when the need arose.

“That was a real relief, yet when I drove my wife at 10 o’clock at night, I could not help feeling worried that some sniper might target me. Fortunately, everything went well on the night of May 31 when I drove my wife to the hospital.”

On the 1st of June, their baby was delivered – by a Chinese doctor 🙂

On racial relationships today

“It is hard to say as I am not very observant in as far as race relations are concerned. At my working place, things seemed to be unchanged by what had happened. We have been friendly and that friendliness continued in spite of what had happened.

As for racial harmony today versus 50 years ago, again I cannot answer your question specifically as I am not a good race relations observer.”

Jalan Ipoh Silat instructor, 73 (25 years old) – Drinking the spirit water before battle

On 12th May, the opposition parade passed by Kampung Baru challenging people to come out, including Selangor MB Dato’ Harun.  The next day, people had answered the call, with a large throng of Malays outside Datuk Harun’s house.

“When we entered Datuk Harun’s lawn, I saw that everyone looked as if they’re going to war. I saw some people drinking some water from a huge earthen pot. It was said that if you drink it, you won’t feel afraid or anything. That’s when I started thinking, are we really going to fight? After they drank that water, everybody became too spirited and they seemed to lose control of themselves”

As soon as they were let loose onto the streets, that’s when the killing began, first around Kampung Baru, and then on to Chow Kit. “All the houses there were burned down. Meanwhile the Malays were trapped in a cinema theater. A lot of the Malays died there.”

Two days later, one of our interviewees tenants wanted to visit his wife in Kampung Pandan. On the way, they were halted by police. When asked where they were headed…

The police said, “Are you trying to get yourself killed or what?!” so we went back. It’s because at that time things weren’t quite stable yet, a lot of people are still holding grudges. After about a week, things settled down. I myself work with Chinese people. But I’m grateful that there’s no grudges between us about the incident. Only after that, you can hear whispers on ‘sucker punch’ cases between the Malays and the Chinese. From what I remembered, it didn’t took long for things to get normal again, it’s all good after one week.”

On racial relationships today

“To me, there’s not much difference in the relationship between the races before and after 13th of May. You can say that the racial unity looks okay, but only perhaps it’s because people’s feelings and intentions are kept inside. To be perfectly honest, for me, I still can’t really accept and trust them.”

Safiah, 64 (16 years old) – Three weeks of house arrest

The day before the incident, Safiah was at home. There was a discussion going on at their neighbours house about the rally on May 13th, and how it would start from the Selangor MB, Datuk Harun‘s house. The children were told to stay in from school. Unfortunately, her younger sister was somehow unaware of their specific instructions.

“It started as a calm day, but as the day went on it turned into chaos. We were asked to stay inside and lock the doors and windows. I could remember my younger sister at that time. She wasn’t aware of the whole situation, so she went out to buy a revision book. She was chased home from Chow Kit road, and came home looking pale and crying. We were so scared  when we heard gunshots.”

After the first day, curfews were declared. “During that time, rangers or people from the army guarded the village. We couldn’t even go to our toilet as the toilet was outside the house,” she recalls. Thankfully, the army dropped off supplies, which kept the family fed, and glued to the TV for the update, which came three weeks later, lifting the curfew and returning some semblance of normalcy.

On racial relationships today

“Before, our lives were divided based on our ethnicity. However, after the 13^th May incident we were able to see a culture shift where everyone is treated equally. We could accept each other and respect each other no matter what your religion or race is.

The harmony has improved a lot. We are now friends with everyone, and it doesn’t matter whether you are Malay, Chinese, Indian or others. I still have friends from different races and we do visit each other during the festive seasons.

I sincerely hope the future generations will still be able to experience this. This is what will maintain our country’s peace and harmony.”

Pak Amjal, 81 (33 years old) – The Parang Parade

UMNO had suffered bad losses in Selangor in the 1969 elections, but had retained the state. To counter the Chinese rally, the winning party decided on the 12th of May to hold a parade the next day.

“They went through the streets calling out “Harun mesti turun, Harun mesti turun! Kita sudah menang!” (Harun must come down, Harun must come down! We have won!). I had a relative at Petaling Jaya, so he said to me, “Tomorrow it’s our turn to parade,” But the condition is that you must have a parang!

“So I sharpened my parang. When I was sharpening it, a cop saw me, so the cop asked me why are you sharpening your parang? I said that we’re going to a parade tomorrow, so he asked me, if you’re parading, why would you need a parang? I answered, “Datuk Harun said to bring one,”

So on the 13th, Pak Amjal went to Kuala Lumpur with his parang. But as he arrived at Jalan Campbell, he ran into another cop.

“Din!” he called out to me. “Where are you going? They’re killing each other out there!” the cop said to me. I was shocked and went home. When I reached home, there’s already a curfew in place. What I know is that at this Kampung Kerinchi, when a person walks by they will bagi salam. Whoever didn’t answer was killed. The salam thing is to tell the Malays and non-Malays apart.

“During the few days after that, I went to the market. When I got there, I can see that the grudge was still there. A Chinese guy told me, “You Malays, if there are no police and soldiers, you Malays will be finished!” He was so spirited. But after that, the government came up with Muhibah, to get the society back together. Now things are better, but if there are still some who kept the grudge inside, I don’t know.”

On racial relationships today

“We have to look at the government, as the earning gap and the economy of the Malays can still be assisted. But the fault still lies in the government, as it’s also them who’s stopping the Malays from advancing. So the Malays must be aware of their situation, but it seems like they’re not.”

The worst of us, and the best of us

To be honest, we were debating whether or not to publish that last story, as we were concerned that it could actually raise more tension. However, we were grateful to 83-year old Pak Amjal for being so candid with us, and decided to leave it in. There was one comment at the end of his interview that was very enlightening tho…

“But in current times, there won’t be another 13th of May. Because society now is different. The ones who are causing trouble are the people above, the politicians,” – Pak Amjal

Even back then, there were allegations that May 13th was orchestrated for political means (by Bapa Merdeka, Tunku Abdul Rahman himself no less). In fact, halfway through that interview, Tunku actually ended it abrutly.

“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.”  Tunku Abdul Rahman, as quoted on Malaysia Today

While tensions between Malays and Chinese have always been there (whether we choose to acknowledge them or not), most of the other people we talked to had discovered first hand that deep down, people are people, and race is not reason enough not to help out. And anyone who has lived through a Malaysian general election will attest that the same tensions are used by politicians on both sides today.

While nothing as bad as May 13th has happened in Malaysia since, it’s important to note and acknowledge this moment in history, to remember where we don’t want to go again. In fact, this year, some our our Malay and Chinese youth leaders are actually revisiting old May 13th haunts, but with a message of unity.

As Paj Amjal said, society has changed, and there’s some hope now that our political climate will eventually as well.

Co-written by Chak and Badd