Make May 13 a day to honour victims of riot, says academic

 

Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is an academician who has been outspoken on race relations.

PETALING JAYA: An academic who has been outspoken on race relations has called for May 13 to be treated as a day of remembrance to honour victims of the country’s deadliest race riots in 1969.

Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi of UCSI University, said May 13 should be a date when the nation contemplates the stupidity of leaders and the community regarding the tragedy, and for everyone to take collective responsibility.

“If we don’t acknowledge our mistakes, we cannot move forward,” he said at an online forum on May 13.

The May 13 race riots took place after the 1969 general election, in which the ruling Alliance party suffered severe losses and almost lost power in Selangor. The riots led to the loss of hundreds of lives and the proclamation of a state of emergency that lasted two years.

Tajuddin said “May 13” was often used in politics to make threats against others because Malaysians had failed to learn from the past.

He said that those who died in the riots should be remembered as national heroes to give their lives some meaning. “And if we have pictures of them, we should display them in a gallery to honour them,” he said, repeating his call for a memorial to be built for the victims.

On a separate matter, Tajuddin said one way to silence extremists was to gang up on them.

For example, he said, if a party attacked Christians, it shouldn’t just be the Christians who responded; instead, other religious communities such as Hindus and Buddhists should leap to their defence.

“So when the issue is raised and the other religious groups were to join forces, the extremist would be afraid to attack anyone,” he said, adding that it could also be applied to those who attack people of other races or the LGBTQ community. - FMT