Here's an article on the truth life accouts on few people who
experienced the May 13, 1969 massacre. It never mention that the
massacre was done by the MAF, however, who will forget &
forgive the brutality of them (?).
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Newspaper : THE NEW STRAITS TIMES
Article Title: The true heroes of May 13
Date : 26 Oct 1999
Page: 7
The May 13 racial riots, 1969. RACIAL and political tensions were
already brewing prior to the 1969 general election. The endemic
socio-economic backwardness of the Bumiputeras seemed without
solution, and race-relations among the peoples of the five-year-old
nation of Malaysia were still an experimental concept, with
virtually no margin for error.
The climax began six days before the nation went to the polls in
May 10. A 24-year-old Chinese male was killed after he and other
men in his group, who had been painting signs on the road, refused
to follow police instructions and instead, put up a fierce
struggle.
With the Communists spoiling for a fight by waging their campaign
for an election boycot, the man's funeral on the day before the
general election turned into a day-long Communist political
demonstration.
The election results showed the ruling Alliance Government suffered
heavy losses.
On May 12, to celebrate their unexpected election success, the
Opposition parties held a victory procession in the city. The
processions, some with and without police permits, went on until
the next morning. That day, political tensions peaked.
Casualties from the violence totalled 196 dead, inclusive of 15
unidentifiable bodies found in the Klang River and disused mining
pools. Another 439 were wounded.
Over 5,000 were prosecuted for various offences, with 21 charged
for murder and 15 for murder and arson.
From the senseless violence also emerged the true heroes of May 13:
the unsung heroes who either worked alone or in their respective
organisations, risking life and limb to provide help and care to
over 27,000 refugees trapped in 11 locations throughout the Klang
Valley. Abdul Razak Ahmad writes.
Braving the riots to offer aid M.A. Malik, a businessman and
Rotarian:
I WAS at the Royal Selangor Club during the afternoon of May 13,
when someone reported a commotion at Lembah Pantai, which at the
time was just a ramshackle collection of houses and one petrol
station.
The first reports were sketchy - it seemed some people had attacked
motorists passing through the area, and that a curfew had been
declared. My first thought was that I had to fetch my wife, who
worked as a staff nurse at the General Hospital.
Driving back to my house through Lake Gardens to Bangsar, traffic
was chaotic. I reached home and called the Petaling Jaya Police
Station. The OCPD, whom I knew, said he needed help to transport
civilians trapped by the curfew to their homes.
I told them I would need documents to enable me to travel during
curfew, so they arranged them for me.
A group of citizens including myself later organised ourselves to
deliver food supplies to residential areas facing shortages, as all
shops were closed at the time.
At one stage I went to Klang and met a shopkeeper who told me he
had abandoned his van, which was filled with eggs, at a petrol
station in Pantai Dalam. He told me I could have all the eggs if I
could get his van back.
So I subsequently got a car boot's worth of eggs which I
distributed to anyone I met who needed them. And for those trapped
in their houses with few supplies, the eggs were a godsend.
Apart from the Red Cross car stickers and arm bands, I managed to
get around town in my car during curfew by putting up a `siren' on
my car roof. Actually it was just an magnetic emergency beacon, but
it worked. People thought I was an official!
I managed to drive right into Kampung Baru, which was one of the
worst areas hit by the violence. The mobs didn't set on me. They
were grateful for the supplies I brought.
I thought I was brave, driving around town during curfew. But when
I went to the General Hospital mortuary to help a family claim a
member felled by the violence, I saw how bad it was.
The mortuary was just stuffed to the brim with dead bodies. It's
the sort of thing you see on television happening in war-torn
countries like Bosnia.
I thought I was brave. After seeing the conditions at the mortuary
I realised I was wrong.
When the violence ended, I understood that a stack of letters of
commendations had been issued for us by the OCPD, waiting to be
signed by Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Harun Idris.
Those letters were never signed.
Of gunfire and horrific wounds Dr B. Jagdev Singh, a member of a
medical group practice who volunteered to attend to victims at the
General Hospital:
I RECEIVED a call at about 12 midnight (May 14) by the Red Cross
secretary-general. The Kuala Lumpur General Hospital was short of
doctors, and I was asked to volunteer.
The troubles had begun at 6pm earlier that evening, and by 8pm the
first wave of mainly slash-wounds and gun shot victims were
streaming in.
I was stationed at the emergency ward and spent the whole night
attending to the victims. What struck me was that the wounds were
the type you would normally encounter during war.
One patient almost had his leg severed when someone hacked at his
calf with a machete. In another case, a young boy had inadvertently
peeked out of his window at home when a bullet sliced through his
cheeks, smashing his jaws.
The biggest difficulty though was handling panicked relatives who
were looking for missing relatives.
Nobody knew where anybody was. There was a curfew.
And since there was a curfew, some of the hospital staff had
difficulty getting in.
It was fortunate that I had an armed forces background, because I
managed to call a friend in the army and requested a platoon of
soldiers, ambulances and a Land Rover to help collect and escort
hospital staff from their homes.
At the time, University Hospital was barely in operation. The main
hospital, apart from the General Hospital, was Assunta in Petaling
Jaya.
I also remember receiving a call to attend to a maternity case in
Kampung Pandan. An Irish nun, two nurses and myself went there, and
we parked the ambulance near a field.
The houses there weren't numbered, so we had to ask around to
locate the call. Suddenly shots were fired at us. The nun, who had
army training, yelled at everyone to lie flat on the ground. We
were scared out of our wits.
The violence really drove home the point that for a doctor like
myself, the best formula would be to condemn violence of any sort.
Any trouble started by a few will ultimately affect the whole
spectrum of society.
A country in chaos and fear Salena Karim, a writer, who was six
years old at the time:
MY parents were studying in England, but my father had come back to
Malaysia before her so there was only him and me. I couldn't speak
a word of Malay then.
Malaysia was a new country to me. My dad and I put up with my
grandfather, who was the sub-Inspector at the Campbell (now Dang
Wangi) Police Station.
My strongest memory of May 13 was standing outside my grandfather's
house in the police compound and wondering why the padang in front
was empty. It was very quiet.
So I went to the police station's fence and that's when I saw them
- Federal Reserve Unit personnel - in their blue and red uniforms
and their truncheons and their riot gear.
They were literally yelling, charging up the road in front of the
station into a crowd that was moving towards the station in
turn.
My grandmother yelled for me to come in, but I just stood there
transfixed by the charging men in their blue and red
uniforms.
My father was not home throughout this whole episode. I wrote my
father's name with a question mark on a piece of paper and showed
it to my grandmother.
Since she could only speak Malay and write Jawi and I could only
understand and write English, it did not amount to much. My father
had gone to Kampung Baru, and he got stuck there, `apprehended' by
a group of persons who thought he was Chinese.
My uncle, who was living there at the time, had to extricate
him.
That night I was awakened by a commotion. There was a loud pounding
on the walls of my grandfather's quarters, of people trying to get
in.
There were several Chinese families, some of them Chow Kit market
traders, who were either made homeless from the violence or were
trying to seek refuge.
My grandmother knew them all. She let them in. That night every
inch of my grandfather's floor space was filled with sleeping
bodies.
I had to tiptoe over them to go to the outhouse, and I saw in the
compound many people who had come to seek shelter. There were many
people crying.
My grandmother was crying too. She knew all these people.
Selfless dedication of Red Cross Datuk Ruby Lee, then secretary-
general of the the Malaysian Red Cross Society:
ON May 13 at about 6pm, I was at the Malaysian Red Cross Society's
National headquarters at 519, Jalan Belfield, attending a youth
camp with about 200 Red Cross (now known as Red Crescent) Youth
members. The police phoned to say that a curfew had been declared
indefinitely because of the civil commotion.
There was violence and bloodshed in certain areas in Kuala Lumpur
and later because of the curfew almost everyone was stranded and
had no food. It was nearly 6 or 8pm and from that time onwards, Red
Cross members and I spent the first three days and nights without
sleep and food except for coffee, trying to harness human resources
and organise immediate medical assistance and food supplies to all
those caught in the civil commotion.
Our appeal by radio for Red Cross volunteers to report for duty at
Malaysian Red Cross Society (MRCS) headquarters met with immediate
response. Many bravely came forward in their Red Cross uniforms and
reported for duty with the assistance of Armed Forces personnel.
Some even brought along canned foodstuff given by their
parents.
Doctors, nurses, wives from foreign missions, members from the
Lions Clubs, Rotarians, Malaysian Medical Association, YWCA, and
numerous other NGOs totalling over 600 persons volunteered their
services.
Red Cross volunteer doctors were busy at the General Hospital
together with other medical personnel whilst others were at MRCS
national headquarters in Jalan Belfield, responding to emergency
calls for medical aid and food.
Amidst the tension, fears and uncertainties, everyone worked
without regard of their personal safety. Their sole purpose was to
alleviate human suffering and save lives regardless of race, colour
or creed.
Later, some were at the Chin Woo and Merdeka Stadium and the
Selangor Badminton Hall attending to the evacuees and re-packing
food supplies. Response from the supermarkets, sundry shops and
petroleum companies (for the supply of cooking gas cylinders) was
spontaneous. I have yet to receive any bills from them!
There was MRCS officer Mohd Noor Mat, who risked his life while
waiting for MRCS first aider M Govindasamy who had rushed into a
house to carry a badly injured woman into the waiting
ambulance.
On seeing the mob advancing towards him, Mohd Noor could have
driven off but he waited and shouted for "Govinda" who managed to
rush out carrying the injured woman in the nick of time.
A shot missed my husband, (Datuk) Douglas Lee, who had just
delivered some food supplies to a squatter area near the old
airport in spite of him wearing a Red Cross arm band.
My memories of May 13 will always be with the volunteers and
parents who encouraged our MRCS members to report for duty, and all
those in the community who took care of one another by providing
shelter and security.
Their services in the cause of humanity during such a critical time
should always serve as an inspiration to all those who are finding
ways to reach out to the hearts of men and women to prevent
unnecessary suffering.