According to the official history, the `race riots' of May-July 1969 were a spontaneous outbreak of conflict between Malays and Chinese - Malaysia's two largest ethnic groups - and the violence was prompted, if anything, by opposition parties rejecting the status quo. In this article, the official account is challenged using recently declassified documents held at the Public Records Office, London, which suggest that the riots represented a coup d'etat. With its ideology of Malay dominance, the faction that came to power in May 1969 represented the interests of the then emergent Malay state-capitalist class. Since then, this faction has continued to hold power and has regularly invoked the spectre of racial conflict to counteract demands from non-Malay communities for civil rights.
New Straits Times (16 November 2006). The Malacca delegate Hasnoor Sidang Hussein said: `UMNO is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood in defence of race and religion.' Perlis delegate Hashim Suboh said: `Hishammudin Hussein unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask when he is going to use it' Terengganu UMNO youth information chief Razak Idris warned: `Malay rights cannot be challenged, otherwise the Malays will run amok and May 13 will happen all over again in Kuala Lumpur' Malaysiakini (22 November 2006). Under Malaysia's 1948 Sedition Act, a ` seditious tendency' is defined as a tendency `to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Malaysia'.
2.
Abdul Rahman Tunku, The May 13 Tragedy (National Operations Council , 1969).
3.
New Straits Times (15 October 2006).
4.
On the emergency period, see Hua Wu Yin, Class and Communalism in Malaysia (London, Zed Press, 1983).
5.
Kua Kia Soong (ed.), K. Das and the Tunku Tapes (Petaling Jaya, SIRD, 2002), p. 112.
6.
Subky Latiff , Southeast Asian Affairs ( Singapore, 1977), quoted in K. Das and Suaram, The White Paper on the October 1987 Affair and the Why? Papers (Suaram, 1989), p. 6.
7.
Kua Kia Soong, Racism and racial discrimination in Malaysia, submitted to the World Conference against Racism and Racial Discrimination at Durban, 3 September 2001; also in Kua Kia Soong, Malaysian Critical Issues (Petaling Jaya, SIRD, 2002).
8.
From Sir Henry Gurney to Secretary of State for Colonies, 19 December 1948, FO 371/1583, quoted in Hua Wu Yin, op. cit., p. 98.
9.
Malayan Monitor (12 June 1952).
10.
Rules of the MCA (mimeo), Rules4-7, p. 42.
11.
M. Osborne , Region of Revolt: focus on SE Asia (Harmondsworth , Pelican, 1970), p. 97.
12.
Federal Legislative Council debates, November 1952.
13.
Report of the Federation of Malaya Constitutional Commission (Kuala Lumpur1957), p. 183.
14.
Newsweek (5 September 1966), p. 43.
15.
Straits Times (22 May 1969).
16.
The Treasury Economic Report (1974).
17.
See AnneMunro-Kua, Authoritarian Populism in Malaysia (Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1996), p. 53.
18.
Bob Reece , `The Tunku's last election', Far Eastern Economic Review (4/10 May 1969).
19.
T.G. McGee , `Down - but not out', Far Eastern Economic Review (1/7 June 1969), p. 566.
20.
Bob Reece , `Malaysia: requiem for democracy?', Far Eastern Economic Review (18/24 May 1969), p. 437.
21.
Mr Freeman, Foreign and Commonwealth Office telegram no. 498 of 16 May 1969.
22.
S.A. Budd, British High Commission, 17 June 1969.
23.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office telegram no. 504 of 17 May 1969 .
24.
17 May 1969, Confidential to Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
25.
Mr Duff, Foreign and Commonwealth Office telegram no. 511 of 17 May 1969.
26.
Ian Ward , `Malaysia's veils fall away', Daily Telegraph (23 May 1969).
27.
D.F.B. Le Breton , 22 June 1969, British High Commission, KL to Mr W. A. Ward, South-West Pacific Department, 22 June 1969 .
28.
J.G. McMinnies, Information Research Dept, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, South-West Pacific Department, File No FWM1/9 (Part C, `Malaysia - civil disturbances following general election), FCO 24/486/1.
29.
Financial Times (23 May 1969).
30.
Confidential, A.A. Duff, acting High Commissioner, 28 May 1969, confidential to Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 2 June 1969, `Malaysia: internal situation - civil disturbances following general elections', FCO 24/485/1, South-West Pacific Department, file no. FW M 1/9 (part B).
31.
Ward, op. cit.
32.
A.L. Southorn, South-West Pacific Department, interview by Tun Razak, British High Commission, 11 June 1969.
33.
Mr Duff, Foreign and Commonwealth Office telegram no. 574 of 24 May 1969; FCO 24/484, `Malaysia - civil disturbance following the general election'.
34.
Despatch by D.P. Aiers , South-West Pacific Department, 19 May 1969.
35.
See Kua Kia Soong , Malaysian Cultural Policy and Democracy (Huazi, 1990).
36.
Mr Farrell, New Zealand High Commission, 23 May 1969.
37.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office telegram no. 563, 23 May 1969.
38.
Mr Hainworth, telegram no. 282, 9 June 1969.
39.
Mr Duff, telegram no. 14 , 4 July 1969.
40.
Towards Preserving National Unity, government white paper, 1988.
41.
RajaPetra Kamaruddin, `UMNO's relevance lies in Ketuanan Melayu', MalaysiaToday (1 August 2005).
42.
Kua Kia Soong (ed.), Mob Rule: the East Timor conference in Malaysia 1996 (Petaling Jaya, Suaram, 1998).
43.
Kua Kia Soong, The Malaysian Civil Rights Movement (Petaling Jaya, SIRD, 2005), p. 108.
44.
Kua Kia Soong (ed.), Policing the Malaysian Police (Petaling Jaya, Suaram, 2005), p. 13.
45.
K. Arumugam, March 8 (2007).
46.
Human Rights Report 2006 (Petaling Jaya , Suaram, 2007).
