Malaysia Chronicle

DAP’s Kit Siang to start legal action against new PAS recruit Annuar Musa over May 13 claim

KUALA LUMPUR — Retired DAP leader Tan Sri Lim Kit Siang said he has directed his lawyers to begin legal proceedings against PAS’ Tan Sri Annuar Musa who claimed the former had actively incited violence during the May 13, 1969 riots.

Lim said Annuar appeared to be emulating his new party president, Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, in fabricating baseless allegations when the former Umno leader claimed of a book compiling Lim’s speeches that said the DAP leader was fanning racial unrest during the race riots.

“There is no such book. It is a figment of Annuar’s imagination. I have instructed my lawyers to institute action to clear my name,” Lim said in a statement.

Annuar made the claim during a speech in Bachok, Kelantan, yesterday.

Lim then reiterated the events from 1969, saying he was originally supposed to contest the Bukit Bintang parliamentary seat during the general election that year, but at the last minute, was sent to contest in Bandar Melaka.

“It is strange that I am now accused of being a communist although the communists, who launched a boycott of the 1969 general election, wanted me to lose the Bandar Melaka seat in 1969, and that I am further accused for causing May 13, 1969 riots when I was not in Kuala Lumpur at the relevant (time).

“In actual, I was never in Kuala Lumpur on May 11, 12 and 13 of 1969, as on the morning of May 13, I flew to Kota Kinabalu to help the independent candidates as polling day in Sabah and Sarawak was scheduled later,” he added.

Fifty-four years ago, on this date, a racially-charged incident began in Kampung Baru in what is widely believed to be the initial outbreak of violence of the May 13 riots of 1969.

The violence continued for several days, prompting a state of emergency, with the official government report on the matter recording 196 deaths — though alternative sources estimated a much higher casualty count, possibly reaching into the thousands.

The incident has since played a pivotal part in Malaysian politics, and survivors of the event have had to endure its lasting impact, which has shaped their collective memory of the nation. MM

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