YOURSAY 'Deep inside, many of us know that May 13 was never a racial riot. It was infighting amongst Umno warlords.'

Ex-Umno man defends DAP against May 13 charge

Hang Babeuf: Yes, once again: The events of May 1969 resulted from a complex confluence or convergence of several distinct lines of powerful causation.

For that reason, it is hard, even impossible, to attribute what happened to any single individual.

But if there was one individual, one historical actor, who - more than any and all others - brought about and triggered the tragedy of May 1969, that person was not DAP leader Lim Kit Siang but Umno's own Harun Idris, the then Selangor menteri besar, from whose official residence in Jalan Raja Muda the "bother-boys" set out towards Chow Kit and Kampung Baru to do their wretched work - and brought the nation to its knees.

This is a core historical truth that Umno will one day have to accept and acknowledge. It is an indelible fact that no amount of ‘Tanda Putera' revisionism or "air-brushing" or diversionary political hero-worshiping can ever erase or alter.

Raja Chulan: Deep inside, many of us know that May 13 was never a racial riot. It was infighting amongst Umno warlords. They wanted to expel our much beloved first PM, Tunku Abdul Rahman.

They didn't do it democratically but instead found it convenient to use the racial card to divide and distract the people in order to carry out their evil plan and achieve their evil objective.

The Chinese (including DAP) and the Malays of Kampung Baru unfortunately became the scapegoats. I sincerely believe (as many others will also do) that Umno leaders Abdul Razak Hussein, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Harun Idris were key players and beneficiaries of May 13.

I also sincerely hope that one day in the near future, an independent body will be set up to uncover and record this fact so that future generations will know the truth about May 13.

Apapunboleh: Why the May 13 issue not brought up prior to the 2004 and 2008 general elections? It only shows that BN is really desperate and losing ground. BN has already given up on the Chinese voters and fanning racial hatred to try to gain Malay votes.

Swipenter: It is an unspoken truth that May 13 was staged by ultra Umnoputras to retain power in 1969 after that year's general election and then blamed the racial riots on DAP and the Chinese (also communists) for it ever since.

Umno has never cease to demonise DAP and the Chinese as synonymous to communists. They have hidden the fact that many leaders of the communist movement in Malaya then were ethnic Malays and the Bukit Kepong incident was lead by a Malay communist.

It is about time we come clean with our history and move forward as a nation and as Malaysians. We must start dismantling all our racist structures and distorted history or forever be damned as a country by racial and religious divisions.

Rolling Thunder: From 1969, everyone knew Mahathir, together with a horde of other Umno bigwigs, orchestrated May 13, but dreaded to talk about it for fear of reprisal by a repressive regime under a dictator.

But now, truth emerges in accordance with the unfailing law of nature, "Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again".

Surely, more will unfold in the days to come to show how evil Mahathir has been beneath a faked veneer of respectability. And people wish him a long life to face justice and receive his dues, unlike the claim that Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim wishes him early death.

Ra2012: It is BN and MCA which are racist. DAP leader Lim Kit Siang is standing in Gelang Patah because it was a Chinese-majority constituency.

It was BN, with the support of MCA, which changed its candidate to a Malay thus forcing the voters to vote along racial lines.

DAP is honourable in contesting in what is a Chinese-majority seat. How could MCA sell out on this? Unacceptable, to say the least.

Jiminy Qrikert: Malaysians of various races have been fighting for the past 44 years to establish the truth about May 13. Fear is a powerful force to suppress people. When the regime in power uses fear, it takes courage to come forward and tell the truth.

Malaysian politics is at a crucial stage where those who were previously afraid, whether due to physical threats or loss of wealth or livelihood, are now willing to come forth and speak out.

Does it really matter if some of these individuals could well be doing so out of a need for self-preservation when the result could be a total and complete emancipation of the rakyat from the regime that has used fear to ensure their supremacy?

Life is a stage, and the lead actors in this sorry play for the last 56 years will now be changed in GE13. That is what is important.

Hang Tuah PJ: Remember when we were celebrating Mahathir as the best PM we had?

Sometime in the 80s when Tunku Abdul Rahman passed away, Mahathir did not declare a day of mourning and immediately than I felt that something was not right about him.

A Muslim is thought to forgive a man of his sins, especially a dying man. And there was no 'public day of mourning' for Bapak Kemerdekaan. At that time, I already knew that he did not have a good heart. When Mahathir passes on, I will paint the town red.

Oscar Kilo: Our textbooks demonise the British for using divide-and-rule tactics to weaken the people of Malaya. Umno is using the same tactics today.

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