Lessons from May 13

Part 1/5 of a R.AGE documentary series on the May 13 riots and the lessons Malaysians should learn from it.

Hassan Abdul Muthalib, Kampung Baru

The morning of May 13, 1969, dawned almost like any other day for then-24 year old Hassan Abdul Muthalib.

For days before, rumours of a rally had been spreading, but Hassan didn’t pay them much attention.

“We were young, we didn’t care about politics,” he said. “We only cared about ‘cari makan’ (making a living).

On the fateful day, he clocked into his job as a graphic artist at the National Film Department of Malaysia as usual - but his workday was cut short when his boss told the office to pack up and go home at 3pm.

By then, people had already started taking to the streets armed with anything they could get their hands on, and Hassan emerged into a world forever changed.

People had been living in relative peace in Kampung Baru, where his house was located - but Hassan arrived to see the Malays and Chinese communities standing on opposite sides of a road heckling each other.

“They were saying ‘Woi Cina, marilah!’ ‘Woi Melayu, marilah!’ (‘Come here, Chinese! Come here, Malay!)” but nobody actually crossed the road,” he recalled with a wry chuckle.

Tragically, it didn’t end with heckling. That night, Hassan saw the Chinese-owned homes burn.

“There were screams - people were trapped in there. Two weeks later, the smell of burnt flesh was still in the air. It was really bad,” he said, grimacing at the memory.

Fifty years later, Hassan is still convinced the racial riot was engineered by politicians.

“At Filem Negara, we worked with all races. Eurasians, Malays, Chinese, Indians - we had no problems. Even after the riots, it was business as usual. At home, the people living on this (Malay) side, and those on the (Chinese) side always just did their own thing,” he said.

“There were never any - let’s say - ‘parties’. And right after that, everything went back to normal. So I think this was created by politicians. They created problems for us ordinary citizens.”

Watch Hassan’s full story:

Parts 2-5 of the May 13: 50 Years Later serial documentary will launch throughout the week. For more info, log on to rage.my/May13.-Star