Long-overdue Chinese anger erupts: Why they will vote anyone but the BN

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 begam

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 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