Mahathir govt won't declassify May 13 documents

Malaysiakini - Gov't shoots down calls to set up May 13 reconciliation commission (extracts)

Putrajaya has shot down a proposal to establish a truth and reconciliation commission for the May 13, 1969 riots.

In a parliamentary written reply today, de facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong stressed that the government would focus instead on strengthening unity as well as the country's economy.

"The report of May 13 tragedy was issued by the National Operations Council (NOC) and it is a document that can be accessed openly.

"The report is complete with all sorts of information and facts related to the tragedy.

"As such, there is no need to establish a truth and reconciliation commission in relation to the May 13 tragedy," he said.

Liew (below) was responding to Lim Lip Eng (Harapan-Kepong), who asked if the government was ready to declassify documents on May 13 as well as set up a truth and reconciliation commission.

A day after the 50th anniversary of the riots, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the government would study the need to set up such a commission.

To date, the only official document released by the government is the NOC report.

For a start, let's not euphemise the May 13 tragedy as an 'incident', which I admit I was guilty of prior to the recent exposure by Malaysiakini. It was a sad terrible horrendous racial riot where hundreds if not thousands were killed and slaughtered horribly, including many school children, thus it was definitely not a mere 'incident'.

And the worst part of all has been its evil initiation by unscrupulous politicians for their personal political gain in power, and not because of defending or protecting any ethnic group. Yes, they provoked the killings for their personal political power.

Of course, asking the government to declassify official documents pertaining to the May 13 Racial Riots would be indulging in a wet dream, indeed a very very wet dream.

And the tone leading to the PM's stand was already/preemptively reflected in his usual Kerbau of ''the government would study the need ... etc etc", basically a BIG 'NO', eff off and thank you.

No one in power then (May 1969), in either government or politics, wants to open a can of worms which may implicate him (no woman was then involved).

You would have to break his arms, extract his teeth and crush his balls and yet he'll still eff you off again on your request for the government to declassify official documents relating to the riots.

But Dr Kua Kia Soong has studied the British documents on May 13 in UK and written a book on it. Try his book.