Karpal, the instigator.

8.5.2008.

I consider myself an educated, civil and level- headed person. I have many Chinese, Indian and Punjabi friends. I have grown with some of these friends since primary school days. I don't get excited easily, although I've been known to be stubborn, difficult even. I understand the concept of freedom of speech, and know what western democracy means. I have seen this country grow, from the backwaters of its colonial past, to the relatively modern and progressive Malaysia of to-day. 

But I have also personally seen the racial riots of May, 13, 1969. I was renting Shuib Tahir's house in Kampong Baru at that time. There were four of us in the house. The others were my brother, Padir, who later became the Group MD of Felda Holdings Bhd., Dr. Aziz Kadir, later to become the DG of RRIM, and Rahman Tahir,later to serve at the Malaysian Embassy in Belgrade. These people are still around to verify the authenticity of my account. 

The rented room was 200 meters from the official residence of the late Harun Idris, the Selangor MB , in Jalan Raja Muda, where it all started that fateful afternoon. Days before that, after the Opposition party had won a sizeable number of Parlimentary and State seats in the then just concluded 1969 General Elections, I saw mainly Chinese with some Indian demonstrators parading in 1-ton lorries in Batu Road and Bangsar, brandishing mock giant brooms, shouting they want to "sweep" the Malays. I saw some youths on the lorries exposing their genitals as a show of contempt directed specifically at the Malay bystanders. May 13 was real. The burning cars and Vespa scooters that I saw were real. The two bodies that I saw, slashed, were real. The bodies that were , a few days later, brought to the GH, as seen by the nurse who stayed in the house next door to us, were also very real. 

I thought we all have learned from this. Now Karpal is very, very close to lighting the fire of open racial conflict again. I'm a nobody. But let me be the first to warn Karpal to cease and desist before it's too late. Let him not be the immediate cause of the destruction of the very Malaysia that he desires. Karpal, of all people, should know about racial sensitivity. Isn't he of those who were so indignant about their people being called "Bengalis" ? This pales in comparison to what he's calling the Malay Sultans, and what he has on record said about Islam. What is the Punjabi population of this country ? If living in this country is so oppressive to the Punjabis, why do they stay here ? The fact is life has been good to the Punjabis, just as it has been good to all races, if they studied hard and worked hard. Of course, some have not been so fortunate, but that predicament is shared by all races. That's life.

All of us have a choice here. We can all pull together to make this country of ours work, or we don't.We just do not speak out because we can. We have to consider first whether what we are going to say would hurt other people. Let me remind Karpal; whether the Malays really love their Sultans or not, or whether they pray 5 times a day or not, insulting the Sultans and Islam openly is not going to be taken lightly by them. Remember, "amok" is a Malay word. Remember also the Natrah riots by the Malays in Singapore in the 50's. What Karpal is doing is not only an abuse of the freedom of speech, it is downright abhorrent in a Multi-racial country where the Sultans are still reigning, even if not ruling, and where the biggest percentage of the population is made up of Muslim Malays. Just because, after 40 years, the DAP is again rearing its head, Karpal shouldn't in turn lose his head. Because, and I say this in absolute equanimity, if Karpal isn't careful, he, and many others like him, may just do that - lose their heads.

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