Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 20 July 2015 issue)

Dear Kam,
Is it really possible that a city could erupt because of a phone?
Mall-ed Out

I never imagined that I would ever find myself attempting to defend the reputation of Low Yat Plaza because I really don’t like going to Low Yat Plaza. That’s probably because I don’t know anything about computers and whenever I’ve been there, I get easily confused and end up walking away with both the wrong thing and the funny feeling that I have been ripped off. These days, I will only ever go there with friends who do know something about computers and who really do know what is and what is not a bargain. I may not like Low Yat Plaza but I don’t think I would try to steal a phone from there and then try to turn things into a racial riot when I got caught. Call me old-fashioned but I just don’t think I would do that. It would be a seriously crazy thing to attempt to resurrect the spirit of May 13 among the busy streets and businesses of KL’s Golden Triangle in 2015, unless my intention was to destroy the nation’s economy and bring on a state of emergency. That would be not just so last decade but the decade before the decade before the decade before that.

Last week, there was a strange, disquieting fracas at Low Yat Plaza. Something happened inside the mall and by the end of the day, a large mob of Malay men had gathered outside in an angry and racist mood. It was ugly and although it did not eventually turn into a major incident, for a while it felt, well, dangerous because some voices were incanting the spectre of May 13, 1969, which may mean very little to young Malaysians but is an event so shrouded in mystery that it still chills many Malaysians of a certain age.

Coincidentally, I had just a few days earlier interviewed a man who had been there during May 13, 1969. He described confusion, fear and ugliness, but mostly confusion. Information was scarce and confused and the very fact that the violence was happening was confusing. Why was it happening at all? People died that night and yet, within a few days the city had gone back to normal, which seems to just compound the sense of horror. How could such a deadly ignition happen spontaneously and then so quickly evaporate, and could it happen again? Perhaps it all depends on whether the ignition was deliberate or not?

Also, talking to my eyewitness, I came to realise that KL in 1969 was at a particular moment in its evolution as it was changing from being a singularly Chinese town into a capital city, with all the aspirations and tensions of a capital city. KL had once been similar to, say, Ipoh but now it was growing fast. People were flooding into KL from all over the country. In a way, May 13th was a violent manifestation of a demographic shift, a shift that had not been adequately anticipated. That doesn’t excuse the violence or the lingering fear.

Personally, I think the events of May 13, 1969, are the exception that proves a rule, which is why the memory horrifies so long after the event. The rule being that this kind of violent eruption does not happen in Malaya/ Malaysia. Unlike the Dutch East Indies/ Indonesia, violence has not been an integral part of our history. Several times the Dutch encouraged pogroms of the Chinese in Batavia (now Jakarta), which on at least one occasion led to the deaths of over 10,000 people, and it’s a tactic that was resurrected in the dying days of the Suharto regime. There is simply no similar thread in our history. There was a week-long riot in KL in the 1920s but it was not in any way racial. Otherwise, I can’t think of anything in our history. And this is perhaps a reason for its enduring horror: it is simply not part of the historical trajectory, so where did it come from?

We like our histories to be written as a clean trajectory from a noble beginning to an equally noble now, but history is rarely so neat and May 13 lingers as a nasty scar. If we had been able to research, investigate and openly talk about that ugly moment, then we might now be able to honestly understand its true place in our journey, and simply move on. Instead it has been locked away and allowed to fester, play on our imaginations.

In other countries, a clash between some imagined haves and the self-perceived have-nots would be viewed as an economic story. Here we instantly devolve to race as being the answer to every single question.

Dear Kam,
I’m thinking of refinancing my car so that I can travel to Singapore. Do you think that’s a good idea?
iMoney

On the surface, Malaysians and Singaporeans appear to speak the same language(s). But there is a basic language that separates us — currency. I was asking a Singaporean for surprise birthday present ideas. She came up with excellent ideas but each one seemed to start with, “You should fl y to Scotland” or “You should fly to Rome” or, well, you get the idea. I had to ask her to translate her ideas from the Singapore dollar and into the ringgit. Sadly, once we had made the conversion, all her great ideas had to be dismissed and instead of London, Paris or Milan, we were left with Penang. I happen to love Penang, but I can’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy that the strength of their currency means that Singaporeans have increased options. But then I remembered that it requires living in Singapore.

Reprinted with the kind permission of