May 13, 1969 - THE VICTIMS' STORIES We were all losers on that day in '69

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May 13 The victims stories (Part 1)

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First Published: 9:15am, Dec 13, 2012Last Updated: 6:58pm, Dec 13, 2012

Nationby Mohsin Abdullah

FZ.COM/Sam Fong

Kg Baru-born and bred Mohsin Abdullah meets 2 old friends who recount what happened

on May 13.

BEING Kampung Baru born and bred, I was witness to the May 13 tragedy back in 69.Ive written about May 13 many times before usually on the day itself to mark the

anniversary. So to write about the tragedy now is perhaps a little odd. But not bad timing

I must say.

The timing, to me is right. Considering May 13 has been in the news of late courtesy

of Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Babas government sponsored Tanda Putera movie andWanita Umno head Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalils fear of a recurrence of the

tragedy should Malays lose their political power.

Both created controversy and polemic political of course. And expect the ghost of

May 13 to be resurrected even more as the 13th general election draws nearer. Hence this

article, now. I met up with two old friends a few days ago and asked them was May 13

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the result of politics? And can resurrecting May 13 work in getting political victory? And

will the tragedy happen again?

Why ask them you might wonder? Well both were residents of Kuala Lumpurs

Kampung Baru where trouble started on that fateful day in 1969. Both were direct

victims of May 13. Both are Chinese Malaysians. That I feel makes them qualified totalk about the tragedy and answer the questions. To me their opinion matters.

So last Saturday I followed them back to Kampung Baru to the very spot their houseswere in 69. The old houses were no more of course. But what happened 43 years ago,

they can never forget.

Oh yes. There was a fourth question which I asked them. But more on that later. At thetail end. But before the answers to the questions, their stories first:

Michael Changs story

May 13, 1969 was a Tuesday. Michael Chang Kum Yuen was 13 years old, a Form Two

student at KLs famous St Johns Institution located not too far from his house in JalanStoney in Kampung Baru .

Form One and Two students then (like now) went to afternoon school. And class usuallyended at 6.15 in the evening. Somehow on May 13 69, students at St Johns were

allowed to go home early as early as 5.30pm in fact.

The teachers had decided to dismiss them early as there was supposed to be a"demonstration" later that evening. Obviously they were referring to the plan by Umno to

have a procession of their own to counter victory parades held days earlier by the

opposition, namely DAP and Gerakan (the party was part of the opposition then). Bothparties had scored significant success at the general election held on May 10.

So Michael, happy that lessons were cut short that day, went home. At about 6.30pmthere was a commotion near his wooden house. He and his siblings were warned by their

mother to lock the doors and windows and remain inside.

It was common those days for gangs in our kampong to fight. Chinese gangs fightingeach other to settle scores. We would just locked everything up and stay indoors until the

fights were over. So that evening we thought it was the usual gang fight, remembered

Michael.

But the usual gang fight it was not. I peeked through the wooden wall of my house and

saw a Malay youth coming out of the house opposite with parangs. And he distributed theparangs to others who had gathered nearby.

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The youth, said Chang was an outsider and had come a few months earlier to stay with

a Malay family whom Michael knew. I used to play with my friends Aziz and Harun but

never knew that guy. He had come and stayed with the family of my two friends.

Those days, Malay houses were located on one side of the narrow Jalan Stoney with the

40 odd Chinese families saying in wooden houses on the opposite side.

My mum sensed trouble and decided we should flee. So we grabbed whatever things we

could get our hands on fast and jumped into our car a blue Ford Anglia, recalledMichael. He still remembers the cars registration number BH 9770.

My elder brother Kuen Siew, who was 22 then, was at the wheel. Myself, my three

sisters and mum Ching Boh crammed into the car. And the car sped off leavingMichaels father Chang Chong Chee and another sister Chang Lui to take care of the

house.

At the junction of Jalan Stoney, my brother decided to turn right towards CampbellRoad (now Jalan Dang Wangi). Had he turned left we would have headed towards

Princess Road (now Jalan Raja Muda) where trouble had erupted .We probably wouldhave been killed, said Michael.

Still as the car was heading towards Campbell Road, they were set upon by a mob.Needless to say a Malay mob.

According to Michael: They were armed with parangs and all kinds of objects used as

weapons. They hit our car with a hard metal objects which made a gaping hole at theside. The windscreen was smashed. We panicked and were really scared. My brother just

stepped on the accelerator and sped off and we managed to escape.

As the car passed the Odeon theatre (opposite the present Pertama Complex), Michael

saw people in panic running aimlessly. "They were office workers, stranded, didnt know

what happened and didnt know where to go," he said.

They drove along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and headed towards Lornie Road (now

Jalan Syed Putra) and reached their destination a relatives house in Taman Seputeh off

Old Klang Road (the present Jalan Klang Lama).

And there they stayed for weeks without knowing the fate of their father and sister who

had remained in Kampung Baru. And without the faintest idea how to get in touch withthem. By then Kuala Lumpur was under curfew. Things in Old Klang Road were

"relatively peaceful".

Then one day my sister telephoned my relatives house to say she and dad were safe and

were staying in Chin Woo Stadium which had been turned into a relief centre, Michael

said. Other relief centres were nearby Stadium Negara and Kelab Sultan Sulaiman in

Kampung Baru and the Kampung Baru mosque itself, to name a few.

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We were so happy. Apparently, our Malay neighbours asked my dad to flee two days

after May 13 as they had heard that a mob was coming for them. So he fled. But ourhouse was set on fire and burned to the ground.

Not too long after that phone call, Michaels mother decided to take her children to ChinWoo Stadium to be with her husband and daughter. Off they went during curfew

relaxation hours and the family was reunited.

Chin Woo Stadium was like a refugee camp. There were hundreds of people. All

Chinese who had fled the violence, said Michael.

There they stayed for months until the situation returned to normal.

But Michael and family never went back to Kampung Baru. After all they had lost their

house and whatever little belongings they had. So the family settled down somewhere in

Weld Road (now Jalan Raja Chulan) and began life all over again. They had to start fromscratch.

Michael Chang now lives in Petaling Jaya, is a finance manager and a keen observer of

politics.

Teh Jit Siangs story

Like Michael, Teh Jit Siang was also at home when the bloodbath began. Jit Siang was

also then a Form Two student at St Johns. Thus he too went home early that evening.

Jit Siang was living in one of the shophouses along Kampung Barus Hale Road (now

Jalan Raja Abdullah). His father Teck Wah and his mother Mei Ying ran the Yik Wahcoffee shop. The family, all 20 of them, lived upstairs. It was a big place enough to

accommodate all of us," said Jit Siang. Across the road were the Malay houses.

At about 6 something that evening, there was a commotion. Nobody suspected anything

but something told us to close the shop and go upstairs, he said. That they did.

And from the window of his bed room, Jit Siang saw some Malay youths running into ahouse nearby which was under renovation. "I could see heaps of weapons like parang and

metal strips in the house and the youths were taking them out, he said.

A while later a mob had gathered in front of his shophouse. "They were outsiders. Our

Malay neighbours came and told them not to do anything there. Somehow they listened

and left.

Not too long after that, I saw the mob along Campbell Road (now Jalan Dang Wangi)

facing a group of Chinese youths. Both groups were armed withparangs. But I dont

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know why they did not clash and dispersed. Had they clashed many would have been

killed.

But the Malay mob returned to the row of shophouses Jit Siang was staying at. They

went on a rampage and I saw them overturning cars including my fathers Morris Minor.

They then set fire to the car.

At about 9pm, Jit Siang and his entire family decided to flee. They came down the stairs,

went out of the shop and walked to the nearby Campbell police station (now the DangiWangi police district headquarters).

There were many people at the police station taking shelter. In the early hours of May

14 we were taken by police trucks together with the other Chinese families to the ChinWoo Stadium.

And Chin Woo Stadium was home for months until the situation permitted them to return

to Kampung Baru.

Yes we came back to Hale Road and operated the coffee shop. There was no fear. Westayed in Kampung Baru for more than 10 years before finally moving out, said Jit

Siang.

Teh Jit Siang is now a gold trader and lives in Jalan Raja Laut which is not far from

Kampung Baru. The row of shophouses he had stayed in is gone. In its place is a modern

office block. Opposite, the Malay houses still stand. Some have been renovated and

others, rebuilt.

Now for the fourth question to them I was talking about earlier. Given what they had

gone through, the sad, bitter and frightening experience during the May 13 bloodbath, dothey despise the Malays? Are they Malay haters?

Read more: http://www.fz.com/content/may-13-%E2%80%93-victims%E2%80%99-stories-part-1#ixzz2VF6AvdN6

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We were all losers on that day in '69

First Published: 1:35pm, Dec 14, 2012

Last Updated: 4:09pm, Dec 14, 2012by Mohsin Abdullah

FZ.COM/Sam Fong

In the 2nd part of their story, Chang, his sister and Teh share their views on May 13

incident.

MICHAEL CHANG and Teh Jit Siang were "direct" victims of the May 13 tragedy,having endured the frightening nightmare together with their families. They also lost

property to mobs which had gone berserk that evening 43 years ago.

To me, both have the "locus standi" to talk about May 13. Their take on the subject does

matter.

Both strongly believe what happened was "pre-planned", citing how weapons were made

easily available to the mobs. And Chang most definitely agrees May 13 was about

politics.

Substantially about Umnos internal politics at that time, geared to toppling primeminister Tunku Abdul Rahman by impatient and overly ambitious Umno leaders, usingChinese economic strength and (the Alliances) defeat at the May 10 general election as

convenient justifications. The scale of violence which ensued was a case of plans gone

wrong, he said.

As for the resurrecting the ghost of May 13 for political mileage, Chang had this to say:

Senior politicians from Umno have not failed to regularly raise the spectre of May 13

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disturbances during Umno AGMs. I think theirs is a struggle for their personal survival

from being prosecuted (for what he see as their wrongdoings), than it is a struggle for

Malay rights, which were never eroded nor even threatened to be eroded.

And to Chang, the potential" for May 13 Ver 2.0 to happen is getting "more and more

distant as time passes.

He went on to say: In my view, it will happen again only if the corrupted leaders

become so desperate (that they are willing) to sacrifice the safety of the country to escapepunishment for all the mega scandals and corruption they have benefitted from.

Harsh words. Angry even. But the anger is not aimed at the Malays. Both Chang and Lim

say they do not despise or hate Malays despite the bitter experiences they wentthrough during May 13. This I can personally vouch for.

Our Malay friends came and protected us when the trouble started. It was not Malays in

general that caused trouble. Only a section, said Teh .

Changs sister Ng Moi pointed out that it was our Malay neighbours who came andwarned my father of an imminent attack by the mob.

Her father and another sister then fled to take refuge at Chin Woo Stadium which wasused as a relief centre. That warning saved their lives.

To Chang, when May 13 happened he was just on the threshold of gaining emotional

and mental maturity".

So I was too young to fully comprehend the reasons for May 13 at the same time not too

young to see and remember visually the signs of hardship, destruction of property andlosses to livelihood. I saw also peoples insecurity, the fears of aftershocks to the main

quake of May 13. Thankfully there were no real aftershocks.

He said pre and post-69, he had the opportunity to attend a great school St Johns

Institution subsequently to work in various places where we had Malay colleagues at all

levels and ranks and I personally have not seen any individual Malay colleague who had

given me reason to hate".

Now all he has is hope. That more Malays will see non-Malays not as threats but as

brothers and also vice versa.

Not too long ago Umno politician and MP for Jerlun Datuk Mukriz Mahathir was

reported to have said in Parliament that May 13 was a blessing in disguise in anobvious reference to the birth of the New Economic Policy after the disturbances.

Many had expressed sadness to say the very least that a bloodbath could be likened

to a blessing.

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Equally sad that Malays have been constantly told they were the winners of the May 13

fight. The reality is we Malays and Chinese were all losers that day in 69.

Read more: http://www.fz.com/content/we-were-all-losers-day-69#ixzz2VF7UpQQW

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May 13, 1969 - THE VICTIMS' STORIES We were all losers on that day in '69