May 13, September 11... and Altantuya! (reprise)

I finally got hold of Dr Kua Kia Soong's latest book, May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969. More to the point, I read it all the way through with interest, and it was an exercise that set off quite an elongated train of thought. When the violence erupted 38 years ago I was living in the quiet southern town of Batu Pahat where nothing untoward happened, although I remember people were tense and uneasy, and the streets were unusually deserted. My severely pregnant wife was almost due then and I would take her for a spin around town every evening - and not once did I sense we were in any danger whatsoever. Our first daughter, Moonlake, was delivered at home on May 28, in the same house where I had been born and - believe it or not - by the same midwife who had delivered me 19 years earlier!

In other words, I had a lot else on my mind at the time. Local politics and vague reports of mayhem in the faraway capital and a few other towns didn't seem as significant as becoming a father for the first time. The news reports were muted, to say the least, and rumors flew around - but I don't recall paying any attention to them. The general feeling, however, was that some folks are bad losers. Politics seemed to me just like a poker game played by a bunch of testosteronal types and, just like it always happens in the Hollywood westerns, some unshaven cowhand will start a gunfight when down on his luck at the saloon.

I didn't believe for a moment in May 1969 that the "race riots" had flared up spontaneously - and declassified documents unearthed by Dr Kua from the Public Records Office in London among other sources clearly testify to that. Well, thanks, Kua! What you've done carries profound significance. It's on more or less the same scale of importance as having some reputable scholar dig up long-buried evidence that, after 44 years, finally resolves the JFK murder mystery and names everyone involved in the plot. Bye-bye, Lone Shooter Lee Harvey Oswald theory. Boo, Warren Commission! What sort of punishment would befit folks who would go to such lengths to snuff three members of the Kennedy clan? Remember what happened to John F. Kennedy, Jr - just as he was on the verge of announcing his presidential candidacy?

By the same token, I'm closely monitoring the unstoppable build up of grassroots support for the 9/11 Truth Movement. Ironically, the people who really ought to know better have mostly turned out to be aggressive deniers of what's plain as day to anyone with unclouded eyes and unclogged nostrils - why do they find it so goddam hard to acknowledge that all governments are perfectly capable of doing unthinkable things just to stay in power? Of course, the blame always has to be pinned on some useful bogeyman like the Communists or the Terrorists. Haven't they read Machiavelli? Actually, I've never even SEEN that oft-quoted handbook on how to win elections and influence history - but we all know what "Machiavellian" means, right? Machiavellian... Orwellian... Cartesian... Antaresian.... nah, doesn't quite do the trick, that last one!

Just consider this: why would the Roman Church, say, be so rattled by the popularity of a Dan Brown potboiler that it would get into damage control mode and begin to debunk instead of debate the distinct possibility that Yeshua (better known as Jesus the Christ) and Myriam of Mygdala (better known as Mary Magdalene) were a royal couple descended from a very ancient and revered bloodline? The answer is obvious: it would shatter the very foundations of a 2,000-year-old belief system and totally undermine the moral authority of the Pope - and, by extension, the entire Vatican. And when the faithful realize that the Church they have supported all these generations has actually been actively engaged in destroying, or at least suppressing, inconvenient truths - and that it is, in fact, the dreaded "Anti-Christ" incarnate... well, there goes another House of Cards, so what?

For a start, history would have to reconsider herstory. Because the central tenet of Patriarchy is that the female is subjugate to the male. Women would finally have a say in matters economic and geopolitical - and that would spell the end of a cruel and ruinous era of constant warfare ruled by "naughty boys with dangerous toys." In short, humanity would enjoy the very real option of envisioning Heaven on Earth - instead of in the Afterlife!

May 13 and 9/11 have one common feature: they were cunningly and ruthlessly crafted public traumas designed to concuss, confuse, and confound the masses - and, while the voters were in temporary shock, they would be robbed of any control over their own future. That's right, folks: the name of the REAL game is "Hand over all your power!"


Dr Kua's straight-talking book confirms for many of us that May 13 was, in actuality, a coup d'état wherein a core group of ambitious Malay bureaucrats and politicos had conspired to seize control of the country using the pretext of a national emergency - and thereafter, in the absence of parliamentary opposition, bulldoze constitutional changes that would legislatively install an ethnocentric doctrine of "Malay dominance" in perpetuity - even if nobody has ever successfully determined what defines a Malay. Couldn't be the songkok and the kain pelekat, surely, or a penchant for sambal belacan? The fear that such racial violence could erupt again anytime the non-Malays begin to assert themselves beyond certain boundaries has been effectively used to ensure that the incumbent government keeps getting re-elected with its two-thirds majority (which, for the first time, it had lost in the 1969 general election, hence the resort to the atavistic politics of blood-in-the-streets).

Imagine the consequences of an unforeseen shift in what the mainstream media considers "newsworthy" that incontrovertibly reveals the hand of Dick Cheney behind the 9/11 atrocities. And following swiftly upon this, the public unmasking of how secret societies and Old Boys' networks have, since time immemorial, been deceiving and dividing humanity along artificially pumped-up ethnic and religious fault lines to maintain their power base on this planet, which they view as their private property, bequeathed them by a barbaric tribal deity. Not likely to happen in our lifetime, huh?

And what about Altantuya Shaariibuu, the 28-year-old Mongolian beauty who got a bit out of her depth in political intrigue and ended up in smithereens? The thing that truly mystifies me: how come we've only ever seen ONE official photo of her? She was said to have occasionally modeled. A few glam images found on the net were quickly dismissed as belonging to some popular Korean songstress.


Anyway, all Altantuya really wanted was what she saw as her rightful share of the booty. Her business partners probably didn't expect her to be so pushy; they thought she'd accept what was offered and leave well enough alone. They thought wrong. Altantuya was no angel. She felt she deserved top money for the extraordinary services she rendered. She was certainly a poor judge of character. Big boys involved in multibillion dollar arms deals don't like being pussywhipped by their mistresses.

Scene of the gruesome murder

It just got nastier and messier than anybody expected. It might have been a perfect murder if nobody had heard the loud bang in the middle of the night. I'm told some Orang Asli encamped in the vicinity were the first on the scene and they lodged a report... oh oh... tough shit! Somebody had already instructed some immigration officer to delete the computer record of Altantuya's arrival in the country. Somebody had authorized assigning ministerial bodyguards to do the dirty work. Somebody had also signed for the release of some C4 explosives.

But... could it somehow have been a form of Mongolian suicide? After all, the Japanese are fond of eviscerating themselves... maybe Mongolian women are adroit at blowing themselves up in dense jungle? Nice try, kiddo.

Stuffing money in the pockets is routine political behavior and most folks would avert their gaze and shrug it off as par for the course. However, shedding blood incurs heavy karmic consequences that inevitably bring down the high and mighty.

This is indeed the Time of Reckoning for the entire human race. Skeletons tumbling out of closets wherever you look. The CIA's role in the assassinations of JFK, RFK (and, I expect, JFK, Jr too) has recently come to light. That dirty business will sooner or later implicate George H.W. Bush (who joined the CIA during JFK's presidency and subsequently became top dog in the Agency under Gerald Ford). Long-term plans to seize the Iraqi and Iranian oilfields were being laid even then by George H.W. Bush - but their implementation would have to await the ascent to ultimate power of the Idiot Bastard Son.

Conspiracy theories and dynasties are fascinating, aren't they? Lee Kuan Yew and his son Hsien Loong. Abdul Razak (the "evil genius" behind May 13) and his son Najib. George H.W. and George W. Bush. Fascinating indeed. But what are we going to do when we discover they aren't just "theories"?

[First posted 1 July 2007. Reposted 27 October 2014]

No May 13, No "Ketuanan Melayu" (revisited)

[From an email I posted on the Artisproactiv forum on 14 October 2004. It was subsequently published in this blog on 30 September 2008, but I feel it's worth reprising one more time to mark the 50th anniversary of 13 May 1969]


Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:41:20 +0800
From: Antares
Subject: Re: UNMASKING THE HORNETS

Those in power will do ANYTHING it takes to remain in power. This is a basic Machiavellian truism. Exceptions to the rule occur, of course, but all too rarely. It takes a Prince Siddhartha to turn one's back on the false and treacherous allure of earthly power and embark on a personal quest for truth and enlightenment.

Or perhaps a prince like Tunku Abdul Rahman who resigned a sad and broken man after May 13 rather than battle those within Umno who wanted him out.

Shortly before his death, the Tunku confided - in a series of intimate interviews with K. Das, former bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review, who was working on the Tunku's official biography - that what happened on May 13, 1969, was really the implementation of a contingency plan to prevent the political opposition (in this instance the DAP and PAS) from forming a parliamentary majority after the 1969 general election. The Tengku actually named FIVE individuals who were the key conspirators.*

Strategies had been laid long before the general election to spark off "racial riots" - in the event of a poor showing for the ruling party in the polls - that would precipitate the declaration of a state of national emergency (temporary martial law and the hasty formation of the National Operations Council) - and the nullification of the 1969 election results. The loss of a few hundred lives was deemed a necessary sacrifice to ensure Umno's continued dominance and the political survival of the Alliance (now the Barisan Nasional).

The plan obviously worked. By declaring it a "sensitive" issue, the May 13 plot effectively acquired the status of a national taboo, thereby protecting its perpetrators from a royal commission of inquiry and charges of criminal treason. 35 years down the line, not one of the five key conspirators has ever been exposed and charged with complicity in this deadly and repugnant sandiwara.

This sort of strategem is actually standard practice - and since "winners" rewrite history as they please - it often takes ages before such skeletons are excavated from the dusty remains of political cupboards, centuries later.

Take the infamous Gulf of Tonkin "incident" which led directly to America's invasion of Vietnam... or the JFK assassination of November 22, 1963: the whole thing is still shrouded in mystery and much discussed amongst "conspiracy theorists." Despite the Freedom of Information Act in America, and a slew of well-researched books on the subject, the general public still unthinkingly accepts that JFK's assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald. Same thing with RFK (Robert F. Kennedy) and MLK (Martin Luther King).

Then there was the story (planted by PR firm Hill & Knowlton) about Saddam Hussein's troops snatching infants from their incubators in Kuwait, which swung public opinion in favor of Emperor Bush I's 1991 Operation Desert Storm. And now we have September 11, 2001 as America's very own "May 13."

Race riots, my foot. May 13 was really just "Plan B": a carefully orchestrated mengamuk.

Yup, it's Chicken Run all over!
______

* One of the five May 13 conspirators is still alive and plotting - and among the others, some of their offspring are still active in politics. So I won't name any of them without proper legal backing or documentary evidence. However, I can drop a heavy hint: two of them subsequently became prime ministers. How did I come by this info? I collaborated with K. Das in 1986 on a book of political quotes and we had a few good conversations over the years.

Vernon Emuang forwarded this Malaysiakini essay by Sim Kwang Yang:

It would seem to be a clear case of sedition when a political butterfly dressed up in hornet's armour tried to revive the ghost of May 13 in the recent Umno general assembly, to the thunderous applause of all those present.

Speeches during Umno general assemblies are more likely to be carefully orchestrated representations of their mainstream thinking, rather than the spontaneous cut and thrust of creative ideas. So we - who are excluded from the inner sanctum of Umno faithful - have to assume that their perennial call to arms is an integral part of Umno ideology. After all, May 13 was the cornerstone upon which the grand superstructure of the NEP had been erected for the past 35 years.

[First posted 30 September 2008, reposted 13 May 2009]

A "born-again" Malaysian writes about his first "illegal" assembly on 9 July 2011

Born Again Malaysian, Totally Cleansed (BERSIH)!
By Socrates

To put my participation in the BERSIH 2.0 Rally into proper perspective, I need to give you a short synopsis of who I am, and what I used to do for a living.

A full blooded Malaysian, I was born in the 50's in Kuala Lumpur, when life was simple, and as kids, we played amongst ourselves oblivious of whether we were Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian, or others. We were just children and kawan-kawan, and we had a darn good time playing football, badminton, sepak takraw, picture cards, etc. all together then.

Razak Hussein,
2nd prime minister

Somehow all this changed especially after May 13, 1969. All the bigotry, and prejudice started to set in during Razak's time as PM and it slowly got worse and worse as the ruling elite spotted the opportunity to divide and rule, and make use of all the prejudice and bigotry to set up divide-and-rule systems that could be exploited to enrich themselves under the guise of "the Malay struggle."

As time wore on, to further entrench themselves in their position of power, built on the insecurities of the masses, and the prejudice and bigotry spawned by their system of "divide and rule," they started to dismantle democracy in Malaysia by making the Executive (Govt) so powerful as to make the Legislature (Parliament), and Judiciary subservient to it, the Executive, thereby making the Prime Minister the de facto dictator of Malaysia.

Not satisfied with this, they dismantled the jury system where we are supposed to be tried by our peers. No longer, now we are tried by judges who are on the government's salary, appointed by the government.

Mahathir Mohamad,
4th prime minister

Furthermore, the government placed their staunch supporters in key positions, whether they were Malay, Chinese or Indian, in the AG's office, Election Commission, MACC, PDRM, and so on to control these institutions so that instead of doing their duty to protect and serve the Rakyat of Malaysia, they are now only to protect and serve the BN govt while paid and funded by the Rakyat.

Naturally, by now, the whole election process in Malaysia has been corrupted and skewed to ensure government rule by the BN, where through gerrymandering, phantom voters, multiple voting, and manipulated postal votes, and the stuffing of ballot boxes, and outright vote buying guaranteed the survival of the BN government to the exclusion of all else, thus thwarting the Rakyat's Will.

BERSIH 2.0 is the Rakyat's Rally to tell the BN Government that enough is enough and we want clean, free and fair elections to reflect the True Will of the Rakyat, and whoever wins the elections then, so be it.

At my age, and having worked for 3 decades (since the 1980's) from a salesman all the way to a CEO of a foreign owned, public listed corporation, coming from a very sedentary lifestyle, the last thing on my mind would be to walk for hours in the afternoon heat, and with the threat of violence hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles, especially so when I suffer from high blood pressure (HBP), a bum left leg, and an overweight 115 kg body.

Having lived through the BN apartheid system (yes, it is no different from South Africa's apartheid system under the whites before the ANC led by Nelson Mandela succeeded in making South Africa a truly democratic nation) for so many years, and having only been overseas for my tertiary degree for 3-4 years, and holidays paid for with my hard earned money, I have always worked in Malaysia, paying full Malaysian taxes, and contributing to the EPF, and lived here in KL all my life, I finally had enough when I saw the demonisation of BERSIH 2.0 and the true Patriots of Malaysia (steering committee of BERSIH 2.0 and all the 62 supporting NGOs), by this self-centred, bully of a government.

So I told my wife and my kids that I had to go to this rally on the 9th July in KL and make our voices heard. If I made it back, fine, if I didn't, so be it. My wife wanted to walk with me, but I convinced her not to as our daughter is only 4+, though our sons are big enough, and she needed a parent to look after her. Also, if I didn't make it back, she needed to carry on the fight for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our country, Malaysia.

This would be my first rally although I had attended almost all the PJ vigils to free Raja Petra Kamarudin from ISA and to mansuhkan ISA, along with my wife and family. My daughter was only 1+ yrs old then and she was then dubbed by Haris Ibrahim and Del Capo as the "Angel" Of the PJ vigils. Yes, I exposed my kids to all this because they had to be taught what is right and wrong, and that is the most important thing that I, as a parent, could teach them.

So we checked into Quality Hotel on Jln. Raja Laut as we thought we were going to the palace, then we heard that we were to go to Stadium Merdeka, but it was too late to cancel, so we all showed up at the hotel the afternoon before.

On the morning of the 9th, I painfully hauled my 115 kg carcass up and walked out of the main door of the hotel at 9:55 a.m. with my wife who insisted on walking some way with me. There was a police car parked up at the front entrance, and further along we saw many blue "ants" milling around, maybe about 150 to 200 of them. We were stopped and asked where we were going, to which I replied:"Sogo". So this big burly policeman said:"Oh ... Sogo boleh." as if I needed his permission at all to set my foot in any part of MY country, Malaysia!

We ignored him and went into Sogo for which could have been our last breakfast together. We observed them playing around with the red riot police helmets, batons, and shields while drinking our coffee. Then, at 10:20 am, we left Sogo and walked to the PRT station across the road. There were some policemen in the booking office and some milling around outside, so I looked at the train routes. I knew I should get out at Hang Tuah to be close to the Stadium, but I saw them watching me, so I told the gentleman at the counter, one ticket to Ampang (the last stop) please, and said goodbye to my wife with my eyes.

You can tell that once the police heard me mention Ampang, they lost interest in me and what I was doing immediately, although I was carrying a bag of water, salt, extra t shirt and face towel! Luckily, we had such simple minded folk in the police force!

I got on the train, but it skipped Hang Tuah station! I swore under my breath! Will it stop at Pudu next, or won't it?? It stopped at Pudu, and I walked out, heading back towards KL. There were no police presence there at all, and while I was walking down Jln. Pudu slowly, the road was eerily quiet, save for some 5 or 6 other people walking like me.

A little nervous, all alone on my way to my first rally, and cursing the Najib administration with every painful step of my bum left leg, hauling my 115 kg sweat drenched carcass, I stopped by a 7-Eleven and bought some sweets. The air-con made me want to just camp there, but the thought of my family floated across my mind, and with renewed vigour (as much as I could muster!) I headed down to where one of my friends said they would be, in McDonald's next to Kota Raya.

Hii Tiong Huat  from Sarawak was arrested one day before the rally for carrying this sign!

But before that, I had to rest my bum leg again and I went into the Swiss Garden Hotel and ordered a milk shake to cool down while I texted like-minded friends to tell them that Jln. Pudu would be an all clear if anyone wanted to join the rally from this direction.

When I reached McD's it was 12 noon and my friends, Lee, Chong and Menon were there laughing at my deplorable physical condition! Soon, we went out to Jln. Sultan and suddenly, everyone started walking out and chanting "Bersih, bersih", "Hidup Bersih", "Hidup Rakyat."

Young, old, strong, weak, infirm, the physically challenged, Muslims, Christians, Confucianists, Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists, Malay, Chinese, Indians, Iban, and many more from all walks of life, walking together, shoulder to shoulder, with but a single purpose in mind, to reclaim our birthright to clean, free and fair elections in Malaysia.

With adrenalin pumping, I walked the length of Jln. Sultan, and whenever a group made it to Kota Raya, we would walk all the way down clapping and chanting to welcome them, and then walk up again. We met several of our friends along the way, Rodi, Claire, Farid and his brother, Hawkeye Jack. There were a few Caucasian tourists joining in and cheering us on as well. What a carnival it was until ... without any warning to disperse, the police advanced upon us.

9 July 2011 was a truly Transforming experience!

Before long, the tear gas came and the water cannon as well, just outside Menara Maybank and PuduRaya, while I was standing outside Nandos, and we scurried up into PuduRaya to escape from the fumes. The water cannon, however, ran out of water before it could reach us and had us jeering and laughing at the hapless "cannoneers", with tears streaming down our faces due to the tear gas!

People were everywhere helping other people, regardless of race, religion, age, gender, etc., and offering salt, and one guy even got a hose connected to spray the people down, those soaked by the chemical laced water from the cannons, and those who got tear gassed badly.

Nostalgia and euphoria simultaneously swept over me, as this was what it was like before May 13, 1969, and after Merdeka, all for one, and one for all! Malaysia had indeed come a long way since then, but here we are again, one people, one identity, One Malaysia! This is what the Najib character had tried to convince Malaysians the government of Malaysia is, but has instead shown how racist, fascist, and prejudiced they really are, administering an apartheid system of governance over the Malaysian people.

God intervened at this point, and the resulting downpour washed away all the chemical laced water, and tear gas, and the police suddenly found themselves powerless to bully the protestors.

On the 9th July 2011, that was One Malaysia in action, and we all headed up Jln. Hang Jebat towards Stadium Merdeka. We stopped outside Stadium Merdeka on its access road and saw barbed wire across the road leading to the Stadium, with the cops behind it.

BERSIH 2.0 in Hong Kong

Some of us shouted: "Kami sokong BERSIH, apa kamu sokong?? Kotor??" Some of them smiled. Some of us sat down and when 4:15 came, we dispersed as we, being men of honour, promised the Agong that we would, all of us, be melting away back to our mundane lives, from whence we came.

There I was, with Lee and Chong, all drenched and soaked through from head to toe sitting outside the YWCA facing the Stadium when a friend of mine showed up, Lian, and her friend. An ice cream vendor came by and we waved him down and had some ice cream. Lee had also kindly shared his stash of biscuits with Chong and I.

We parted company and I found out one of my friends had booked into the Olympic Hotel next to Wisma OCM, I dropped by dripping water as I entered the lobby. Cold, wet through, and still famished from no lunch, and my bum leg sore from so much walking and running, I managed to heave my 115 kg frame into a comfortable chair of the hotel cafe and proceeded to order lunch. My friend, Pat, together with a PAS gentleman, Pak Lokman, had booked several rooms there, and I was generously given a room to shower, clean up, rest and recover.

Malaysians in Hong Kong rally in support of Clean & Fair Elections

To cut a long story short, my wife and family came to fetch me from Olympic Hotel, and after one long look at my tired out countenance, my daughter held my arm tightly and kissed me on the cheek welcoming me back. We arrived back to our hotel and my kids offered to massage and pommel me and said thank you for fighting for them and their future. My wife was relieved beyond words that I made it without being worse for wear. I had left her with all my codes and passwords for everything the night before and I can never forget the look on her face when I did that.

Najib, Hisham, Ibrahim Ali, Mahathir Mohamad, Muhyiddin Yassin, Muhkriz Mahathir, please take heed. We, the Rakyat of Malaysia, will continue to fight for our civil liberties and rights under our Federal Constitution, and for electoral reform to ensure clean, free and fair elections, no matter what you do, or think you can do. With my passing, my wife and children will take up the clarion call to perform their duty as true patriots of Malaysia.

Sure, I am rich enough to emigrate, but I choose not to as Malaysia is my country and my home and nobody, no matter how powerful, how evil, how scheming, will convince or blackball me, or my family and friends, otherwise.

Kicked, manhandled  and handcuffed while stunned by tear gas (pic by Joshua Ong)

There is an ancient saying that we can die without a whimper, or we can make our deaths resound through history. Either way, we die, as death is a fact of Life. I have chosen to make my death count, for my country Malaysia. To the Death, lawan tetap lawan, if that is what is needed to reclaim our birthrights!

An Ordinary, Sedentary, Risen through the ranks, Middle Class, Middle Aged, Bespectacled Malaysian with a bum leg, and an overweight 115 kg frame, signing off.

Socrates
12th July 2011

P.S. What took me so long to write this?? My body and legs still ache, lah, recovering from it all...

Oy, Najib! Is this how you plan to rule the country? (He didn't get the message the first time...)

AT GUNPOINT.....?

How long before your hand gets tired?

You won't get any sleep at night...

You'll be much too stressed to service your voracious wife.

She'll soon be sending for some toy boys...

Isn't this a much nicer and healthier option? You have enough cash stashed away to live in the lap of luxury the rest of your lives... far, far from your political foes in Malaysia!

ERIC LOO: "NO MORE BULLSHIT, PLEASE!"

I was very impressed by Eric Loo's opinion piece published in Malaysiakini. That's why I'm reposting it for those who have yet to subscribe (sorry lah, Prem and Steven :-)... No end to cow-crap politics

Eric Loo Sep 7, 2009  10:52am

With a ludicrous home minister mouthing absurdities, we should be concerned about his capacity to mediate in future inter-communal discord or ability to engage intelligently with his counterparts on the international stage.

The minister and his apparatchiks might want to refer to this resource site at the University of South Africa on political conflict resolution.

Any student in Conflict Resolution 101 knows that in mediating, you don't take sides. You avoid justifying the furore of the conflicting parties. You listen. You ask questions of both parties. You try to understand the context and source of the conflict. You do not pass judgement on who's right and who's wrong.

But, no, we have a home minister - whose job is to ensure public safety and goodwill among racial groups - who exacerbates the situation. He has told the public not to blame the Section 23 protesters, when obviously their hyperbolic and berserk claims to religious territorial rights are blatantly offensive and downright threatening to rational thinking Malaysians.

From the outside looking in, the fundamental differences in religious dogma, moral values and worldviews that separate the Section 23 clowns from the wider community are insoluble in a staged meeting. The prejudice, arrogance and dogma are so entrenched in the minds and hearts of the protesters as members of the dominant racial and religious group - and likewise in the minority Hindu community. History tells us that these fundamental differences are like oil and water, insoluble, except to disperse with time and outgrow each other.

Minority Malaysians have since May 13, 1969 resigned themselves to the political realities of being subjects of Umno-dominated rule. Live and let live, as my grandparents and parents used to say.

We may not have outgrown many of our frustrations and angst caused by government-sanctioned discriminatory policies in the public service, in the tertiary education sector, commerce, in building permits to churches and temples, and in 'equal' access to socio-economic opportunities that would see every citizen realise their full potential regardless of their race, religion or sexual orientation.

I often wonder how many high achievers out of high school - who could be significant contributors to the country's progress in the hard sciences, medicine, technology, education, research and development, culture and arts - were denied those opportunities.

Those from families who could sacrifice and afford it have long left - and are continuing to leave - to study abroad and remain there to the benefit of places like Australia, Canada, US, New Zealand and, ironically, Singapore.

Those who do not have the financial means are left to rely on their resourcefulness to make it good in their country of birth, governed by bureaucrats whose worldview is limited to what they can see through the eyes of their apparatchiks.

From the outside looking in, I see this in the home minister's ridiculous attempt to mediate in the Section 23 cow-head incident. Instead of saying to the mob 'there is no excuse for your actions', he gave the cow-head stomping clowns 'respectability' by meeting with them, thus adding credence to their hyperbolic protests.

They wanted headline attention and they surely got it - this time as posers with the former keris-wielding Umno Youth leader.
See the 'cow-head' stomper standing smugly, suited sans the tie, behind the minister (2nd from right in photo). Just about a week ago the stomper had gone quite mental stomping on a severed cow-head. That's 'cow-crap' politics for you.

Multiple standards displayed

Hishammuddin Hussein could learn a thing or two from President Barack Obama on how to seize the day and morally lead on issues of race and religion.

On July 30 in the Rose Garden of the White House, the US president met with a black Harvard professor and a white police sergeant who had arrested the professor for attempted burglary and disorderly conduct. The professor was actually trying to break into his home because he forgot his keys. After a neighbour's 911 call, the Massachusetts police rushed to the scene - the professor's home.

Perceived racial profiling from the wrongful arrest unleashed public angst over the covert racism that still divides American society. The president mistakenly said on national TV that the police sergeant had “acted stupidly” - to which, understandably, the police objected.

To contain the tit-for-tat situation, the president invited the black professor and white police sergeant to the White House for a “friendly thoughtful conversation” over a few drinks and snacks. Commenting on the teachable lesson from the incident, Obama said after the chat, "I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart.”

In our case, the minister took the opposite road. Discussions on the Internet point to complete disbelief at Hishammuddin's double - or rather multiple - standards, total lack of integrity and the protesters' feigned ignorance of Hinduism's sacred animal.

As Martin Luther King Jr once said in his struggle against the evils of racism and segregation in 1963: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

What if the minister had arranged a session of thoughtful conversation between the stompers and the priests of the Hindu temple at a mamak stall in Shah Alam over mugs of teh tarik? That would have been moral leadership by example.

But, in an entrenched culture of politics that's built on patronage, racial ties and religious dogma, in the end it boils down to keeping supporters on side. Hishammuddin is more Machiavellian than we think.

The affected parties have continued to talk about it - albeit with the inevitable batty outcries and flaring temper at the first town hall 'dialogue' at the Shah Alam City Council last Saturday. It's good to see that the temper was not extended to violence on the streets. We have learned our lessons from 1969 that there are no victors in racial riots.

Unfortunately, it's one step forward and two steps back in our governance with politicians practising multiple standards backed up by inconsistent policing of race-related events. Sixteen Hindraf members were arrested in a candlelight passive protest at Dataran Merdeka on Sept 5.

The Section 23 bellicose stompers were exonerated by the home minister and at this time of writing, remain free. How far back we have regressed with each change of political leadership and politicians of a questionable past, and who seem untutored on the principles of natural justice.

The mainstream media unsurprisingly have given short shrift to the 'cow-crap' politics and inconsistent policing - all caught on Malaysiakini videos.

As readers know, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has ordered Malaysiakini to take down its videos of the 'cow-head' protest and Hishammuddin's press conference after meeting the stompers.

We hope it will not come to that stage. Does the MCMC not know that the horse has bolted? Thank god for YouTube.
Meanwhile, we shall keep the wheels of civil discourse turning, exposing the hypocrisy, ignorance and stupidities that still govern the country.

SHOULD THE TEMPLE BE MOVED FROM SECTION 23?

A MUSLIM PERSPECTIVE

No MAY 13, No "Ketuanan Melayu"

Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:41:20 +0800
From: "Antares"
Subject: Re: UNMASKING THE HORNETS

Those in power will do ANYTHING it takes to remain in power. This is a basic Machiavellian truism. Exceptions to the rule occur, of course, but all too rarely. It takes a Prince Siddhartha to turn one's back on the false and treacherous allure of earthly power and embark on a personal quest for truth and enlightenment.

Or perhaps a prince like Tunku Abdul Rahman who resigned a sad and broken man after May 13 rather than battle those within Umno who wanted him out.

Shortly before his death, the Tunku confided - in a series of intimate interviews with K. Das, former bureau chief of the Far Eastern Economic Review, who was working on the Tunku's official biography - that what happened on May 13, 1969, was really the implementation of a contingency plan to prevent the political opposition (in this instance the DAP and PAS) from forming a parliamentary majority after the 1969 general election. The Tengku actually named FIVE individuals who were the key conspirators.*

Strategies had been laid long before the general election to spark off "racial riots" - in the event of a poor showing for the ruling party in the polls - that would precipitate the declaration of a state of national emergency (temporary martial law and the hasty formation of the National Operations Council) - and the nullification of the 1969 election results. The loss of a few hundred lives was deemed a necessary sacrifice to ensure Umno's continued dominance and the political survival of the Alliance (now the Barisan Nasional).

The plan obviously worked. By declaring it a "sensitive" issue, the May 13 plot effectively acquired the status of a national taboo, thereby protecting its perpetrators from a royal commission of inquiry and charges of criminal treason. 35 years down the line, not one of the five key conspirators has ever been exposed and charged with complicity in this deadly and repugnant sandiwara.

This sort of strategem is actually standard practice - and since "winners" rewrite history as they please - it often takes ages before such skeletons are excavated from the dusty remains of political cupboards, centuries later.

Take the infamous Gulf of Tonkin "incident" which led directly to America's invasion of Vietnam... or the JFK assassination of November 22, 1963: the whole thing is still shrouded in mystery and much discussed amongst "conspiracy theorists." Despite the Freedom of Information Act in America, and a slew of well-researched books on the subject, the general public still unthinkingly accepts that JFK's assassin was Lee Harvey Oswald. Same thing with RFK (Robert F. Kennedy) and MLK (Martin Luther King).

Then there was the story (planted by PR firm Hill & Knowlton) about Saddam Hussein's troops snatching infants from their incubators in Kuwait, which swung public opinion in favor of Emperor Bush I's 1991 Operation Desert Storm. And now we have September 11, 2001 as America's very own "May 13."

Race riots, my foot. May 13 was really just "Plan B": a carefully orchestrated mengamuk.

Yup, it's Chicken Run all over!
______

* One of the five May 13 conspirators is still alive and plotting - and among the others, some of their offspring are still active in politics. So I won't name any of them without proper legal backing or documentary evidence. However, I can drop a heavy hint: two of them subsequently became prime ministers. How did I come by this info? I collaborated with K. Das in 1986 on a book of political quotes and we had a few good conversations over the years.

Vernon Emuang forwarded this Malaysiakini essay by Sim Kwang Yang:

It would seem to be a clear case of sedition when a political butterfly dressed up in hornet's armour tried to revive the ghost of May 13 in the recent Umno general assembly, to the thunderous applause of all those present.

Speeches during Umno general assemblies are more likely to be carefully orchestrated representations of their mainstream thinking, rather than the spontaneous cut and thrust of creative ideas. So we - who are excluded from the inner sanctum of Umno faithful - have to assume that their perennial call to arms is an integral part of Umno ideology. After all, May 13 was the cornerstone upon which the grand superstructure of the NEP had been erected for the past 35 years.