‘Life After’: a haunting recollection of May 13 stories

Resource: History Insights - Malaysia

13 May 2025

PETALING JAYA: It is a sobering fact that every country has its own skeleton in the closet, and Malaysia is no exception. The events of May 13, 1969 may have long been relegated to history books, but the bloody legacy of that day is far from forgotten.

Recorded as a race riot, it involved violent episodes between members of the Malay and the Chinese communities in and around Kuala Lumpur.

Official reports claim 196 people were killed, but this number is disputed by many witnesses and researchers.

Despite the trauma experienced by those who lived through this tumultuous time, there have been few attempts at properly documenting it. To that end, a fresh effort has been made in the form of a book launched on Sept 13 titled “Life After: Oral Histories of the May 13 Incident”.

Compiled by a collective that calls itself the May 13 Oral History Group, “Life After” retells eyewitness accounts by those who experienced that dark day.

According to co-author Por Heong Hong, the group’s focus on May 13 was originally unintended as they had started off by studying the Sungai Buloh leper colony. During the course of their research, however, they discovered that several victims of the riots had been buried in the area.

Hence, their interest in documenting witness accounts grew, culminating in the creation and publication of this book.

“Life After” consists of 20 stories, told by witnesses of various ethnic backgrounds who all had different experiences of that terrible day. “All these years, I have been waiting for people to come look for us to tell our stories,” one ostensibly told the authors.

Needless to say, this is not a read for the faint of heart, as it involves disturbing imagery and explicit details.

Given that there are many narrators, it is interesting to note the similarities in their stories. For one, the events took most of them by surprise, as they had just been going about their daily lives when chaos took hold of KL.

Confusion was the mood felt by all, with one eyewitness simply being a cinemagoer who realised armed men were trying to break into the theatre.

Some of them were also at the wrong place at the wrong time, as in the case of one bystander known as “Mr R”. A university freshman at the time, he mistook a gathering of armed vigilantes for a party where he could get a free meal.

For his troubles, he ended up with the misfortune of being tasked with collecting bodies floating down a river.

Some stories also reveal obscure facts, with one telling how gangsters actually helped maintain the peace during that time.

“Peace was done in KL because the Chinese and Malay gangsters actually sat down (and talked about it). Gangsters did not like this disturbance,” one witness said. Apparently, the riots were causing disruptions in the criminal underworld, which is why they were motivated to keep things calm.

The violence described is absolutely appalling, with one Hassan Muthalib reporting how he saw a boy of about 12 years old hacking at an elderly woman.

Another witness shared the story of how he had found the charred remains of his teenage brother in their burnt-down family home, with the boy’s school shoes still on him.

Amidst the darkness, though, there were several acts of humanity and kindness that shined through, as detailed by certain witnesses.

In one besieged cinema, the Chinese operator helped save several Malay patrons from armed rioters by hiding them behind curtains.

Another story had a Malay family taking in their Chinese television repairman and sheltering him until things had calmed down.

It is stories like these that remind readers that, in times of moral crisis, the best of humanity will emerge alongside the worst. Indeed, books like “Life After” are important tools for understanding what happened and allowing trauma to heal.

The May 13 riots remain a painful memory in Malaysian history, and it is important that such an event does not recur. As written in the foreword: “Those who died a senseless death at the hands of the mob were victims of the nation. They deserve to be remembered and honoured as such.”

‘Life After: Oral Histories of the May 13 Incident’ can be ordered from Gerakbudaya.

Source and image credit: Free Malaysia Today

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17 May 2025: 10.02 a.m