“Pride is an established conviction of
one’s own paramount worth in some particular respect,
while vanity is the desire of rousing such a conviction in others,
and it is generally accompanied by the secret hope of ultimately
coming to the same conviction oneself.”
~Arthur Schopenhauer
**********************************
May 13, 1969 – it was either too far back in my memory or there was nothing significant happening in Port Dickson back then for me to remember anything (most likely the latter).
It is an event repeatedly resurrected by our UMNO/BN hoods to scare the people into submission to “gods” which walk the corridors of power, and consequently handing them power on a silver platter.
It is an event repeatedly resurrected by our UMNO/BN hoods to scare the people into submission to “gods” which walk the corridors of power, and consequently handing them power on a silver platter.
Yes- there was no other purpose for the dastardly events of May 13, (which incidentally UMNO holds as their crowning glory) other that FEAR.
While the people are willing to stop looking under their beds for ghosts which may lurk there- UMNO would not relent … and so, they resurrect it again and again. They want it- they need it.
Now that all PERKASA’s sabre-rattling isn’t working (and the people have pretty much gotten over it), they have to do something to imprint in deeper into their psyche- so this time they engage the pathetic FINAS to come up which something on the silver screen to servfe their purpose.
Just like any other political game- they will play their “Good cop, Bad cop” game; and that’s where Mazlan- son of the famed Father (Dato’ Harun- apparently a “central figure” in the event) comes into the picture.
“Umno veteran Datuk Mazlan Harun wants the public
to lay to rest the ghost of a 1969 racial bloodbath
— that could threaten the country’s unity
in the run-up to national polls due next year.
The son of the then Selangor mentri besar,
opened up to The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview last week
over reports of an incident at his father’s home ……”
I don’t know Dato’ Harun personally, although I did treat him once during his illness in his winter years- and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. I’m serious. However, “reading between the lines” and listening to the “unofficial versions” of May 13, gives a different picture of him- and UMNO.
So, despite all UMNO’s propaganda that May 13 was a “racial” thingie, I’m inclined to believe that it was just the “politics of the capitalist sociopaths”. (Whatever mask, beard, robe or skullcap they wear- most ruthless politicians are “capitalist sociopaths” anyway).
Through and through, it was purely about power and money- whitewashed with “affirmative action” of racial privileges/supremacy, which ultimately manifested itself through 40yrs of the brain-numbing, racially divisive, apartheid policies of the NEP (New Economic Piracy). All these policies of course, came into full bloom in the era of the other central figure of May 13- none other than our beloved Proton Car Toon, Mr. Madey.
Be that as it may- not only are Malaysians willing to put it behind them and move forward, I believe that Malaysians are also willing to forgive the perpetrators of that massacre, for the sake of the future generations. So, just as Mazlan says, we all want to bury May 13 as well.
However, I also believe that it cannot be buried in a shallow grave of lies and propaganda.
Not now, not ever.
Not now, not ever.
The only way to “bury” May 13, 1969- is to declassify all documents, and have a truth & reconciliation commission. If the brutal Apartheid regime of South Africa can do for their decades of abuse- so can UMNO, for one incident.
There is no need to punish those (alive or dead) who were responsible & are willing to admit their faults- for the truth is of greater value for the nation.
There is no need to punish those (alive or dead) who were responsible & are willing to admit their faults- for the truth is of greater value for the nation.
Sweeping it under the carpet thru spin, silence or gag orders will only let it fester in the hearts and minds of the young ones thru stories, lies, myths and speculation- which is what UMNO wants, so that it can hold the nation at ransom (aka blackmail).
Anyways- even if UMNO insists on playing the same old tired game of fear, I’m pretty much convinced that they wouldn’t want it to happen themselves (after all, it is they who stand to lose the most with the collapse of the economy).
Moreover- I seriously doubt that my Malay brothers buy their hogwash and believe that it is the non-Malays who have (or will rob them of their money/dignity).
Moreover- I seriously doubt that my Malay brothers buy their hogwash and believe that it is the non-Malays who have (or will rob them of their money/dignity).
They too know who’s playing the wayang/silat…..
NOTE:
Although it was Gerakan which had officially apologized for the conduct of their party members (Al-Mukmin, Hatta (2005). “Keranamu UMNO”, p. 104. Abadi Publishing House) during the party rally, it is not known why UMNO buries this fact- and pins the blame squarely on DAP.
Although it was Gerakan which had officially apologized for the conduct of their party members (Al-Mukmin, Hatta (2005). “Keranamu UMNO”, p. 104. Abadi Publishing House) during the party rally, it is not known why UMNO buries this fact- and pins the blame squarely on DAP.
There is nothing more subversive than the alternative narrative. A parallel version of the Godhra incident and riots sabotaged the re-election of the NDA government four years ago. A subaltern variation of the police operation at Batla House, near the Jamia Milia Islamia University on 19 September, is undermining the credibility of the Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi government today. It cannot undermine the credibility of home minister Shivraj Patil because he has none.
The first doubts began to circulate even while Patil, wearing a very self-satisfied expression on his face, began to congratulate himself in front of television cameras for delivering bullet-justice to two young men living in a small apartment of this building. He had, he said, personally supervised the encounter, presumably without taking any break whatsoever for fresh laundry.
Ironically, doubt needs the support of evidence. If it is mere partisan belligerence, it will last no longer than a puff of acrid smoke. Some things did not quite add up in the official story. It was, to use a phrase familiar from the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, the dog that did not bark that raised the first question. You rarely slip on hard concrete; it is generally the banana skin that turns a measured tread into a painful fall. The Rashomon effect, where the same event induces sharply different perspectives, can make for intriguing fiction; in real life, it can rip up communication lines carefully planted by a government trying to sell a fable.
The first question, followed by two photographs, began to dilute the triumphalism of the Delhi police even during the early phase of its self-glorification. The authorities noted, with satisfaction, that two ‘terrorists’ had been killed. They added that two had escaped from the rented urban cage where they lived, which was all they could afford. The deaths were explicable; the escape was not. The building had only one entrance, and hence only one exit. It was surrounded by policemen. How could the two escape?
When the murmur became a buzz, the police attempted damage control with a weak suggestion. The two could have escaped through the roof, hopping across rooftops. But it was daytime. The roofline was surely as closely monitored as the roadline. Neighbourhood eyes were tense and alert. Had anyone seen this acrobatic, even melodramatic, form of flight?
No.
Two pictures propped up two ends of a growing conviction of foul play. One showed Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who lost his life, walking towards something, presumably the car that would take him to hospital, supported by two colleagues (one in a tie, the other in a T-shirt). His gunshot wound was obvious. There was a heavy patch of blood on the upper part of one arm, and only a faint discoloring on the lower front of his bush shirt, near the abdomen. Police had said that Sharma had died from a bullet in the stomach. The picture proved that the bullet had not hit the stomach, and that Sharma was able to come down four flights albeit with help. A bullet in the stomach would have left him a stretcher case, and caused far more blood loss, particularly through the exit wound.
The official story changed. The self-acclamation had been blared over media, the change was released discreetly, through a plant that said that he died of a heart attack caused by blood loss.
The questions multiplied: was Sharma hit by what is known in military parlance as ‘friendly fire’?
The police would have been far more comfortable about their theories if some intrepid photographer had not snapped Sharma. The second picture, however, was part of their public relations offensive. It showed three suspects, Zia ur Rahman, Saqib Nishad and Mohammad Shakeel. As is usual in the case of suspects being put on display, their faces were covered with cloth: the police are gracious enough to disguise the identity of suspects for they cannot be deemed guilty until a court has passed judgment. But there was significant departure from normal practice. These three had been shrouded by Arab-style headdresses (made famous by Yasser Arafat, and now a staple of Arab identity in countless TV images) instead of the anonymous black cloth used by police.
The questions multiplied: was Sharma hit by what is known in military parlance as ‘friendly fire’?
The police would have been far more comfortable about their theories if some intrepid photographer had not snapped Sharma. The second picture, however, was part of their public relations offensive. It showed three suspects, Zia ur Rahman, Saqib Nishad and Mohammad Shakeel. As is usual in the case of suspects being put on display, their faces were covered with cloth: the police are gracious enough to disguise the identity of suspects for they cannot be deemed guilty until a court has passed judgment. But there was significant departure from normal practice. These three had been shrouded by Arab-style headdresses (made famous by Yasser Arafat, and now a staple of Arab identity in countless TV images) instead of the anonymous black cloth used by police.
Who had decided that these three suspects should be given an “Arab” identity? Was this a not-so-subliminal message to even the densest in the audience about the nature of the “enemy”, that the headdress was a signature of “Islamic terrorism”? Did this brilliant idea emerge from the home minister, now the hands-on commander, or did it emerge from somewhere lower down the food chain?
Indian Muslims did not need to open a political dictionary to gauge the meaning of this forced symbolism? They knew that it was an attempt to stigmatize the whole community and link terrorism in India with an international conspiracy, with an implied hint at Osama bin Laden, the most famous Arab terrorist.
If the purpose of the UPA government’s officialdom was to intensify fear of Muslims among non-Muslims, then it succeeded. Indian Muslims are used to being fearful – of riots, police prejudice and arbitrary authority. They have learnt to temper their response with realism. They believed in the government of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, if only because they reassured themselves that they had been primarily responsible, through intense electoral mobilization, in adding the crucial 20 odd seats to the Congress that enabled it to become the largest single party in the last general elections. That perception has been shifting slowly, almost reluctantly, because Muslims had no other national political anchor. The Jamia incident has become a wake-up call. The growing perception is that the UPA government has deliberately killed innocent men to satiate the demand for action against terrorism.
Is that the truth? I have no idea, because the truth is privy only to those who control the guns – on either side of the divide. But this much I do know. In public life, perception becomes the operative truth.
y Syed Ali Mujtaba
There are many secular minded persons hailing the landmark judgment of Special Court judge, Jyotsana Yagnik in the Naroda Patiya case of the post-Godhra riots in Gujarat. The lady judge in a bold judgment convicted 32 persons including some high profile people like former BJP minister, Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi.
No wonder, she is being applauded by the Gujarat riot victims for scripting the story of their great fight back. However, judge, Jyotsana Yagnik is not the only character in this amazing story.
On 28 February 2002, ninety-seven persons were killed in Naroda Patiya, in the outskirts of Ahmadabad. This was one the biggest massacre of Muslims during post Godhara riots in Gujarat. It followed the protest call given by the BJP government after train fire tragedy in which 97 Hindu lost their lives near Godhra railway station.
The mysterious fire was blamed on the Muslims and in a retaliatory move; a well organized progrom was launched in different places of Gujarat. In this innocent Muslims were attacked, Muslim women were raped, houses burnt and this mayhem continued for weeks. The law enforcing agencies remained mute spectators to such blood and gore obviously following the instructions from ‘above’. According to one estimate more than 2,500 Muslims lost their lives in the post Godhara riots.
Call it conscience, courage, honesty, humanity or sense of duty, many social activists, lawyers, journalists and actors came out in open to seek justice for the Gujarat riot victims. They were joined by some upright officers who worked in the police and administration making it an incredible story of fight for justice.
In a hostile atmosphere when section of bureaucracy, society and officials spew hate against the Muslims, social activists braved threats on their lives to side with the victims, lawyers’ came forward to file cases for them, journalists risked their lives to do sting operation to nail the culprits, serving officers risked their career to disobey the orders and some openly spoke about the perpetrators of the crime.
This is something unimaginable in the annals of independent Indian history as all those on the forefront of this great fight are non –Muslims. Their valiant efforts deserve a salute. But for them, like many other cases of communal violence in India, this one too could have become a case of justice denied.
Social activists Teesta Setalvad has became a symbol of this amazing story. She braced all odds and painstakingly collected evidences to fight the court battle seeking justice for the riot victims. Her efforts literally set up a fight between David and the Goliath. The strong judgment in the Naroda Patiya case could not have been possible, without her and others determination to take the cudgels against the might of the state and the society in large.
In this amazing story, Harsh Mander, a Sikh, is another hero. He left the coveted job of an IAS officer, in wake of Gujarat riots. This courageous officer openly criticized his colleagues of not doing what was expected from them during the communal pogrom. It is not an easy job to take such a moralistic stand for a serving officer. Since then Mander is relentlessly fighting for relief and rehabilitation of the riot victims.
Mukul Sinha, of Jan Sangharsh Manch activists is another character of this story. He painstakingly collected vital evidences, scanning thousands of pages of documents and producing them in the court as records, so that the culprits could be brought to justice. He did this with great courage ignoring even the threats to his life.
Actor Nandita Das, also a social activist, at various forums openly spoke about Gujtat’s officers’ laxity; their complicity and the role of politicians’ in perpetrating the riots for days together. Her movie “Firaaq” graphically depicts the pain and agony of the victims of the post Godhra riots.
Tehelka journalist Ashish Khetan, whose sting operation ‘kalank’ established the role of Babu Bajrangi and others in the post Godhara riots is exceptional piece of journalism. The extra-judicial confessions recorded by Khetan on camera proved to be corroborating evidence against the Bajrang Dal-VHP leaders who had given a go-ahead to the anti Muslim program.
Criticizing the perpetrators of riots from outside is a easy, but to speak for the victims being the part of the ‘system’ requires extra ordinary courage. The intelligence chief, RB Sreekumar is one such person who got disgusted with the state apparatus that drove him to fight for the justice of riot victims.
The figure of deaths in Gujarat could have been much higher except for some prompt action by some men in uniform. IPS officer Rahul Sharma who showed exemplary courage ordering firing on the mob of rioters on way to burn a Madarsa in Bhavnagar that housed 300 children. Sharma later came up with revelation of politicians’- rioter’s nexus and for this Gujarat government acted against him and issued a chargesheet.
There are other officers who also didn’t budge despite pressure and ensure that violence was controlled in their areas. V K Gupta, Manoj Shashidhar, Narasimha Komar, Vivek Srivastava, M D Antani, Upendra Singh, Keshav Kumar and other are to name a few.
IPS officer, Sanjeev Bhatt is the shining star of this amazing story who listened to the call of his conscious. He risked his career naming Chief Minister Narendra Modi for complicity in Gujarat riots. It really requires an extraordinary courage to speak up so boldly and Bhatt has become a symbol of this courage. FIRs were filed against him and he was arrested for challenging the most powerful person in the state.
The names mentioned here are just some cues to give an indication about the nature of this fight. There are many unsung hero who deserve equal praise. Their combined efforts have resulted in Supreme Court monitoring the cases, constituting the SIT, rapping government, and taking other important steps.
The other riot cases in Gujarat have on the judgment stage, prominent being Gulbarga housing society case. It is expected that just like Naroda Patiya case, the judgment in other cases may too indict some high and mighty people of Gujarat.
Even though the SIT has absolved the Chief Minister Narender Modi, of role in Gujarat riots, the forthcoming judgment may spill some beans. Modi remains evasive, even though being called ‘merchant of death’ in popular discourse. It’s likely that some crucial evidence may filter in such cases that may become the clinching evidence to nail the ‘big fish.’
Indian secular traditions many a times has withstood such storm and each time it has emerged stronger. The fight for justice of Gujarat victim is the story of India’s glorious secular tradition. It is the acts of such heroic deeds that have instilled the faith of the Muslim community in the Indian democracy. All those who are part in this great fight back deserve a heartfelt gratitude from every Muslim of this country.
Each religion, as it has come to be humanly, historically and conventionally understood, is premised on the notion that those who claim to follow it have a special access to the Ultimate (called by various names), and that others, often defined as ‘disbelievers’, are in varying manifest error. Such dominant understandings of religion are premised on the existence of sharp boundaries between insiders and outsiders, between the ‘chosen’ and the ‘damned’.
One of the functions of conventional religious discourse is precisely to reinforce such boundaries, brainwashing members of each community into imagining they alone possess tickets to heaven and that the rest of humanity are doomed to never-ending damnation in hell precisely because they are not members of this club of the elect. Such communal-supremacist understandings of religion are, to put it mildly, hardly conducive to inter-community peace and harmony. They are, and have been throughout history, a principal cause for unending strife (physical or otherwise) between religionists of all stripes.
Science has been defined as, “a continuing effort to discover and increase human knowledge and understanding through disciplined research. Using controlled methods, scientists collect observable evidence of natural or social phenomena, record measurable data relating to the observations, and analyze this information to construct theoretical explanations of how things work.”
Based upon this definition, physicians, engineers, chemists, physicists, pharmacists, sociologists
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