MALAYSIA: Requiem for Democracy?
BY: BOB REECE
Kuala Lumpur: "Democracy is dead in this country. It died
at the hands of the opposition parties who triggered off the events leading to
this violence."
Such was the epitaph delivered last week by Tun Dr Ismail, Malaysia's new Minister for Home Affairs, after the worst racial rioting the country has ever experienced. Hatreds flared up in Kuala Lumpur on the evening of May 13, and by early this week, the official number of dead stood at 137, with more than 300 injured, hundreds of houses gutted and scores of vehicles burnt.
In the early hours of Sunday last week, it had become obvious that the ruling
Alliance Party had received a major setback in the general election although it
had managed to retain a simple parliamentary majority. Penang had been lost to
the Gerakan Party; Kelantan had been held by the PMIP (Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party),
and the Alliance was struggling to retain control of Perak and Selangor.
The Alliance had almost certainly lost its old two-thirds majority which had enabled it to amend the Constitution; three of its ministers and two parliamentary secretaries had lost their seats; its share of the valid votes had dropped by 9% since 1964 to 49%; and it faced the prospect of a vociferous and effective (largely Chinese-based) Opposition in the Federal Parliament for the first time since Independence.
Foreign correspondents in Kuala Lumpur who had observed the elections filed
despatches praising the Malaysian democratic process and predicting five years
of peace, prosperity and more efficient government. The Tunku's initial
reaction was naturally one of disappointment, but he conceded that the people
had wanted a strong opposition, which they had now got.
Exultant supporters of the Democratic Action Party and the Gerakan filled the capital's streets on Sunday and Monday night with their flag-waving cavalcades of vehicles. Their delight in breaking the Alliance's myth of invincibility inevitably irritated Malay supporters of the Government. Malays were also alarmed by boasts that the Chinese had now achieved some measure of political power.
By 2pm on Tuesday, the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association), which had suffered
badly at the polls, announced that it would withdraw from the Cabinet while
remaining within the Alliance. Tun Razak pronounced sentence on the
Chinese voters who had been warned before the elections that unless they voted
MCA, they would forfeit all Chinese representation in the Government. At UMNO
(United Malay National Organisation) headquarters in Batu Road, the feeling was
that democracy had gone too far -- in other words, that the political hegemony of
the Malays, papered over in the Alliance by the multi-racial front of MCA and
MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress), was in real danger. A non-Malay Mentri Besar
in both Selangor and Perak seemed dangerously likely.
Late on Tuesday afternoon, young Malays from the whole of Selangor began to
assemble outside the residence of the Selangor Mentri Besar, Dato Harun. A
retaliatory march had been planned by the UMNO youth to end in a rally at
Suleiman Court near Batu Road, but police permission was withheld. While people
were still assembling for this parade, trouble broke out in the nearby Malay
section of Kampong Bahru, where two Chinese lorries were burnt. By 6.30 pm, a
crowd was raging down Jalan Raja Muda towards Batu Road. Another group came out
of Kampong Bahru into Jalan Hale, another exit from the Malay section into the
Chinese areas.
By 7.15pm I could see the mobs swarming like bees at the junction of Jalan Raja
Muda and Batu Road. More vehicles were smashed, and Chinese shop-houses set on
fire. The Chinese and Indian shopkeepers of Batu Road formed themselves into a
"district defence force" armed with whatever they could find --
parangs, poles, iron bars and bottles. I watched one old man pathetically grasp a
shovel. Men, standing in the back of a truck travelling up and down the road,
urged the people to unite. A 16-year-old boy tore strips from a piece of cloth
to be used for identification. When the Malay invading force withdrew as
quickly as it had arrived, the residents took their revenge. Shop-fronts and
cars suspected of being Malay-owned were smashed or burnt. Several attempts
were made to set fire to the nearby UMNO headquarters where three propaganda
jeeps had already been set on fire. A bus, whose Malay driver had allegedly
knocked over two Chinese on a bicycle, was also attacked.
The police arrived at about 9pm but did not remain in the area. Later,
truck-loads of Federal Reserve Units (riot squads) and the Royal Malay Regiment
drove past. The Chinese in the street ran into their shop-houses as soon as the
convoy came into sight, but were quickly out on the greets again when they had
passed. By midnight, I found the street almost deserted but sounds of gunfire
and the glows of fires showed that trouble had flared up elsewhere.
From my own observations, the curfew was not imposed on Tuesday night with
equal rigidity in all areas. In the side streets off Jalan Hale, I could see
bands of Malay youths armed with parangs and sharpened bamboo spears assembled
in full view of troops posted at road junctions. Meanwhile, at Batu Road, a number of
foreign correspondents saw members of the Royal Malay Regiment firing into
Chinese shop-houses for no apparent reason. The road itself was completely
deserted, and no sniping or other violence by the residents had been observed
by the journalists.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, troops and police were in effective control,
although incidents were still taking place. At one point, Malay youths came out
of nearby kampongs to drop bricks on passing cars from a footbridge on the
Federal Highway which leads to the airport. Another nasty scene saw groups of
armed Chinese youths attempting to make their way to Malay kampong areas.
By Friday, curfews had been imposed in Malacca, Negri Sembilan, parts of Perak,
southern Kedah, and Penang as well as Selangor. Six battalions of the Royal
Malay Regiment together with Federal Reserve Units and police were spread very
thinly over this large area, and all army and police reserves were mobilised. The formation of a Civil Defence Corps was
announced, and "loyal" youths were asked to volunteer. Hundreds of
houses, deserted during the panic, were set on fire, but by Thursday the Fire
Brigade appeared to be on the job. The presence of the police and the army had
restored a measure of confidence by Saturday morning, although the Government
ignored earlier offers by opposition party leaders to co-operate in damping
down the violence.
In a speech on Wednesday last week, Tunku Abdul Rahman said the riots were due
to an attempt by disloyal elements to overthrow the Government by force of
arms: "The terrorists, under the cover of political parties, are trying
for a comeback." This interpretation of events was repeated
by the new Minister for Information, Enche Hamzah, and by Tun Abdul Razak at
press conferences on Friday. According to Deputy Prime Minister Razak, the
Labour Party boycott of the elections had only been a feint. The real strategy of the communists had
been to "intimidate" people into voting for the opposition parties.
"The unseen hand of communism," elaborated Tun Ismail, "had
manoeuvred events using the opposition parties as its tools."
In a second speech, the Tunku said that a great deal of money had been poured
into the country by communist agents: "They branded the MCA as
pro-Malay... it was astounding to see the response they got through
intimidation and threats." By contrast, the Tunku added that the
communists had earlier tried to prevent the elections and took the opportunity
of parading in their armed thousands for the funeral procession of a youth
reported to have been killed in self-defence by police when he was discovered
pasting up anti-election posters. While it was true that some Mao-slogans
and flags were seen during this parade, the discipline of the 14,000-strong
crowd in their eight-mile march may have been due to genuine restraint rather
than to communist organisation.
The violence, which the Tunku described as triggered off by the behaviour of
opposition supporters after the announcement of the election results, had
provided, he said, a situation which the communists "had always tried to
create". As if to demonstrate this, it was announced on Friday night that
"93 hardcore terrorists" had been arrested in a building in Batu Road
with home-made arms and were alleged to have confessed to the intention of
attacking innocent people. Another 60 "armed communists" were taken
into custody over the weekend.
A day earlier the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had proclaimed a State of Emergency
under Section 150 of the Constitution. This gave the Government powers similar
to those which it assumed in 1964 during the Indonesian confrontation. On
Thursday afternoon, the local press was suspended until censorship regulations
could be drawn up but no attempt was made to supervise reports sent out by
foreign correspondents. (However, on Saturday, some overseas journalists had
their curfew passes removed by armed troops.) Straits Times editor-in-chief, Tan Sri
Hoffman, made an impressive plea against these official moves both editorially
and at a press conference. (This was particularly significant both because
of the standing of his newspaper and because of his own reputation --
especially for courage during the Japanese occupation.) He remarked to
Information Minister Hamzah that only Malaysians were to be prevented from
finding out what was going on. In reply, Hamzah's explanation was that the ban
was due to the inflammatory nature of articles printed by the local press,
before and during the elections. Hoffman protested: "Is a civil servant
going to tell me what is inflammatory and what is not inflammatory?"
Tun Razak revealed that the National Operations Council, of which he is the
head, would consist of the Ministers for Information and Home Affairs as well
as representatives of the police and the armed forces. A mini-cabinet was also
to be formed, including MCA ministers Tan Siew Sin and Kaw Kai Bo, but it was
not clear what its relationship would be with the Council. Tun Razak is still
responsible to the Tunku, but all the powers under Emergency Regulations are
vested in him. The Council has responsibility for restoring law and order and
will be built on a hierarchy of councils at state and district levels.
It is too early to write an obituary for Malaysian democracy -- all the facts
are not yet known. However, since they may never come to light, speculation is
inevitable. It seems that the Alliance was unable to accept the criticisms
which the electorate -- Malay, Chinese and Indian -- registered at the polls.
The sole rays of hope are the peace which prevailed in the former Labour Party
stronghold in Penang where Dr Lim Cheong Eu has been sworn in as Chief
Minister, and in cholera-stricken Kelantan, where PMIP's Dato Asri announced
immediately after the election results that people of all races in his state
were to be considered to be "Kelantanese".
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