May 13 eyewitness: Build monument, get leaders to pledge 'no repeat'

An eyewitness to the May 13, 1969 riots proposed a monument be built in Sungai Buloh to remember the fallen victims and also serve as a site for leaders to make an annual pledge for the incident not to repeat.

Foong Yee, who was a 24-year-old probationary police inspector when the riots happened, said this is how he thinks the country should remember what happened on that day.

“In Sungai Buloh, where victims of May 13 are buried, they should build a monument overlooking the graves and every year, all the ministers must be present and make a 'never again' pledge.

“We have so many monuments remembering fallen soldiers but here we have fallen victims of a bloodbath so let's have a monument where ministers and government leaders are present on a specific date to tell everybody else, never again,” he said during Malaysiakini’s May 13 forum today themed ‘An Inter-Generational Conversation’ in Kuala Lumpur.

He was responding to an audience member question on how the panellists think the May 13 incident should be remembered by the nation.

Alongside Foong, the forum also featured other May 13 eyewitnesses such as filmmaker Hassan Muthalib and veteran journalist Johan Fernandez.

The three of them had recounted their various experiences during the May 13 riots in the earlier half of the forum which saw an attendance of more than a hundred people comprising mostly youths.

During the question-and-answer session later, the panellists fielded questions such as whether they had spoken about their May 13 experience with their family members or if they had only recently started speaking about it.

Foong said he had narrated his experience to his family who regarded him as a hero after he helped save his family and his neighbours that day. 

Hassan, meanwhile, said the first time he spoke about it was about 10 years ago on an interview programme with Fahmi Fadzil, who is now the Lembah Pantai MP.

The trio also took turns to answer a question on how situations changed in the direct aftermath of the May 13 riots with Hassan and Johan noting things went back to normal almost immediately after that.

“The funny thing is this, after the riots, it was like everything went back to normal. Life went on.

“We can’t look behind everybody and see whether this guy is a good guy or not. I didn’t lose a single friend,” Johan said. - Mkini