PETALING JAYA, AUG 27- DAP today called upon the government to establish a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the infamous May 13, 1969 race riots.
Party veteran Lim Kit Siang said that the royal commission should be tasked to find out what transpired on the fateful day, including the identity of the masterminded of the bloodbath.
“This is not the first time I am making such a call. I made the same statement in my first speech in the Parliament on Feb 23, 1971.
“Although 44 years have passed since the tragedy, we need to ascertain what really transpired on that day in order to present the historical truth to the present and future generations.
“In addition, it will also stop irresponsible quarters from raising the spectre of May 13 to blackmail voters from exercising their democratic right to vote freely,” said Lim in a statement.
The Gelang Patah MP said this in response to a scheduled release of Tanda Putera movie on Aug 29, which is alleged to depict the opposition, particularly DAP, as the cause of the May 13 incident.
It was claimed that there is one scene in the movie which shows a Chinese man urinating at a flag pole at the Selangor menteri besar’s office.
Despite protests by opposition party members and several NGOs , the government is bent on releasing the movie, directed by Shuhaimi Baba. The government-funded movie was originally scheduled to be released last September but was postponed due to its sensitive subject matter.
On the movie, Lim said that it was imperative for Shuhaimi to list out what are the unverified and fictional parts of the May 13 riots shown in the movie in order not to mislead Malaysians.
“It is important as Shuhaimi herself had admitted that the movie is work of fiction,” he said.
Training his guns against the government, Lim said, “Instead of spending public funds to allow a movie director to concoct a fictitious movie, the money would be better spent to establish an independent inquiry to probe the tragedy.”
