More options Jun 22, 9:49 pm
From: Mahound
Subject: Long overdue chinese anger erupts
Long-overdue Chinese anger erupts: Why they must vote anyone but the BN
Written by Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle
Rabble-rouser Ibrahim Ali has gone into overdrive threatening the Chinese with another May 13 attack because he and his backers do not want the Bersih Rally to proceed on 9th July. That the Najib administration has not censured him is a sign that his words and deeds are condoned by the government.
What is more amazing to the Chinese community is that Ibrahim has made
it seem as if they are the ones to be blamed for the anti-election
fraud Bersih 2.0 rally. Yet, despite the open and unmistakable threat
of bloodshed, Prime Minister Najib Razak has continued to keep mum,
choosing to focus on the Langkawi International Dialogue for third
world nations.
On Sunday, June 19, 2011, Ibrahim Ali had burned effigies of Ambiga Sreenevasan, the Bersih chairman and former president of the Bar Council. He also warned the Chinese to "stock up" on food and threatened to reprise the May 13, 1969 racial riots where scores of Chinese homes were burnt to ground and dozens killed by what appeared to be Malay extremist groups.
Power grab behind the 'racial' riots
Malayisa's dubious history books paint a different version of racial
strife and misunderstanding.
But most of the older Chinese will remember that it was the UMNO faction led by Abdul Razak Hussein, Najib's father, who had plotted the May 13 incident to topple first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.
Tunku was forced to resign and Abdul Razak became the second prime minister of Malaysia. Perhaps it is in the genes, but soon after Najib ousted Abdullah Badawi for the UMNO presidency, he pulled a similar coup d'etat in Perak, forcibly toppling the then fledgling Pakatan Rakyat state government headed by Nizar Jamaluddin.
The new generation of Chinese may not know it but the older Chinese who were living in Kuala Lumpur at that time, especially in the Tiong Nam area, remember well the that fateful day and the events that led to it. To them, the horrifying events are etched into their minds as if the killings had happened only yesterday.
Even then - as now - those events were blamed on the victory parade held by the Opposition after the polls and the so-called extra boisterous celebration by the Chinese who formed the majority of Opposition
supporters.
The Malays were supposedly incensed as they felt they were losing
their hold on power to these Chinese 'immigrants'. Yet in other parts
of country, even in PAS-led and Malay-predominant Kelantan, there was
peace. It was the UMNO Menteri Besar of Selangor at that time, Idris
Harun, who was one of the prime movers of the rioting and he cleverly
lit the fuse in Kampung Baru, the Malay heartland within the capital
city.
Chinese elders living in that area will tell of horrifying incidents
when Malay youths armed with parangs rushed at them as if running amok, and
then slashing and killing the Chinese who were streaming out from the
Federal Cinema in Jalan Chow Kit near the Tiong Nam settlement.
Cars and homes were torched and many Chinese who left their homes that
day did not return. Some were later found in the hospitals and some
just bled to death on the streets. Many more were missing and still
unaccounted for until today. The number of casualties have never
really been revealed by the government and what is officially
available theatrically scaled down.
News of Malay youths on a bloody rampage quickly spread to Air Panas
in Setapak, which was also a Chinese New Village. Incensed, the Chinese
youths sprang into action by chopping down trees to form a blockade.
Confusion reigned as no one knew what had happened and why. The cry
that snaked around Air Panas then was that 'the Malays are killing the
Chinese, they are are coming for us now'. Luckily, nothing untoward
happened there or in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
And so the suppression began
So it was, that emergency and curfew was declared. Tunku appeared on black-and-white TV, a broken shell of a man and announced his resignation. For his contribution to the nation, he was given a pension and a colonial-style bungalow in Kenny Hills.
Najib's father then stepped in. He initiated the Dasar Ekonomi Baru or New Economic Policy in 1971, an affirmative action plan to eradicate
poverty.
Architects of the plan, including retired senior civil servant Ramon Navaratnam, have said the NEP never specifically mentioned the Malays,but being the largest group amongst the poverty-stricken, they naturally received the most aid.
The NEP was most abused and used as a tool for corruption during the
time of 4th prime minister Mahathir Mohamd.
Meanwhile, due to immediate clampdowns on speech and the threat of the
Sedition Act, order was restored in the aftrmath of the May 13 killings. Not only was the communications infrastructure weak then, the people were mostly uneducated still. Therefore, order of a false sort returned.
But the problem was never solved.
Today, racial polarization is at the lowest ebb. Communications infrastructure is a million-folds improved and the Chinese lead in the field of education - not as teachers but as students and top-scorers. If those who plotted May 13, 1969 tried to reprise that in 2011, they would be in for a major surprise.
And this what Ibrahim Ali is now getting. Lots of brckbats, but it is not enough.
Anger erupts, closure for an unjustified spate of murders demanded.
Chinese rage has erupted. The community wants its pound of flesh, with interest backdated from May 13, 1969. A fairly humble race, mostly quiet and usually engrossed with their extended family lifestyles and chores, the Chinese don't forget easily. Their famous flair for math also means they keep tabs pretty well too.
So foolish Ibrahim Ali was the perfect storm. He unleashed a silent
fury that will never ever go away until an apology is made, again with
backdated interest from May 13, 1969. Malaysian Chinese want closure for May 13
and that can only come when justice is finally delivered to those
murdered on the streets of Kuala Lumpur that fateful day.
Even Japan, so proud a nation that they would prefer to commit hara-
kiri than than to face shame, has apologised for their war crimes especially to Korea and China. How is that a person in the shape and form of Ibrahim Ali can think he can pull off in today's age and world a reprisal of
what was basically a mini-ethnic cleansing deliberately staged by
ruthless and evil-minded politicians?
The blame certainly goes to Najib, the son of the father of May 13.
Last year, Najib rang warning bells when he threatened "crushed bodies",
"lost lives" and "ethnic cleansing" at an UMNO assembly.
Whether Najib was trying to rally Malay support for UMNO is his
business. Whether he was right or wrong is for voters to tell him, in their own
way and time.
But for the Malaysian Chinese, life will never be the same again after
Sunday, June 19, 2011, because until they right the wrong of May 13,
another dolt like Ibrahim Ali will come along and make nonsense of all
their learning, their culture, precious time and hard work moulding
Malaysia into what it is today. Malaysia is their country and no one
can take it away from them. Let Ibrahim Ali try!
Malaysian Chinese must vote anyone but BN
What the Chinese must remember is that Ibrahim Ali is a nobody. It is
those who back him who are the trouble - not just for the whole of
Malaysia but specifically for the Malaysian Chinese. And it is time
for the Malaysian Chinese to stand up to them. And who are they, these
faceless and nameless cowards who instigate murder so that they can
continue to plunder and rape the country?
Let us call a spade a spade. The racists causing the greatest trouble
to the Chinese in Malaysia are the ruling elite in UMNO.
Now that the bogeyman has been unveiled, so to speak, the Malaysian
Chinese must do what they have to do. Use their brains, use new
technology, form think-tanks, use all their might to resist and defeat
this class of class-less leaders in UMNO, who are corrupting and
contaminating not only their own party but the rest of the nation.
Declare war on the UMNO elite. Vote any party except the BN.
Make the UMNO elite powerless until their own grassroots reject them
and kick them out. Remember UMNO has 3 million members, the majority of
whom are very decent folk who have also been duped by their top
leaders.
In fact, it is the ordinary Malay folk who stand to lose the most from
the economic banruptcy that is threatening the country.
It is a strange twist of fate indeed. It is left to the Chinese, who
have never been much interested in politics, to have to take the lead now.
Only then can Malaysians - Malays, Indians, Chinese, KDM and all
others - finally get down to living a decent life without fear of being accused
of the most nonsensical rubbish by people who wield far too much power -
dangerous people without reason or any sense of justice.
(Additional reporting by Selena Tay) - Malaysia Chronicle
Last modified on Tuesday, 21 June 2011 15:15
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