The launch of “Violence against an Ethnic Minority in Malaysia:
Kampung Medan 2001” by S. Nagarajan & K. Arumugam is a wake-up call
for Malaysians to get wise to the Malaysian state’s attempts to portray
racist/fascist pogroms against ethnic minorities in Malaysia as
so-called “racial riots” that came about “naturally” because of social
conditions and dissatisfaction.
![VIOLENCE against an ethnic minority by Umno-BN: MAY 13 - NEVER AGAIN!]()
This is the first book written to put the record straight on the
racial violence against ethnic Indian Malaysians at Kampung Medan in
2001. For this racial violence to happen more than thirty years after
“May 13” is a scandal and an indictment of Malaysia’s modern day
institutions which are still steeped in racism and racial
discrimination.
My 2007 title, “May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969” challenged the official version that the violence (in which the victims were mainly ethnic Chinese) was the result of “riots” between “Malays” and “Chinese” who had been provoked by irresponsible opposition politicians. The official version of the Kampung Medan violence in 2001 was that the “riots” had been sparked by incidents which ignited “naturally” in a neglected urban ghetto.
The facts on May 13 point to an orchestrated pogrom in which a complicit state allowed the violence to drag on until July 1969, before the security forces demonstrated their full capacity to restore order. As documented in Nagarajan & Arumugam’s new book, the Kampung Medan violence, which started on March 8, 2001, was allowed to continue over a number of days in a relatively small enclave of Petaling Jaya – with the last tragic incident occurring on March 23.
This delay in taking action reveals a serious credibility problem surrounding our law enforcement and security forces. How is it that these forces failed in their duty to apprehend the thugs who unleashed the racial violence and also failed to investigate those who had organized the violence? Eye witness accounts show that in some of the racial attacks there, the police just stood by without stopping and apprehending the thugs. This was the same observation noted during the “May 13” pogrom, namely, the security forces did not play the professional role expected of them.
This is the first book written to put the record straight on the
racial violence against ethnic Indian Malaysians at Kampung Medan in
2001. For this racial violence to happen more than thirty years after
“May 13” is a scandal and an indictment of Malaysia’s modern day
institutions which are still steeped in racism and racial
discrimination.My 2007 title, “May 13: Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969” challenged the official version that the violence (in which the victims were mainly ethnic Chinese) was the result of “riots” between “Malays” and “Chinese” who had been provoked by irresponsible opposition politicians. The official version of the Kampung Medan violence in 2001 was that the “riots” had been sparked by incidents which ignited “naturally” in a neglected urban ghetto.
The facts on May 13 point to an orchestrated pogrom in which a complicit state allowed the violence to drag on until July 1969, before the security forces demonstrated their full capacity to restore order. As documented in Nagarajan & Arumugam’s new book, the Kampung Medan violence, which started on March 8, 2001, was allowed to continue over a number of days in a relatively small enclave of Petaling Jaya – with the last tragic incident occurring on March 23.
This delay in taking action reveals a serious credibility problem surrounding our law enforcement and security forces. How is it that these forces failed in their duty to apprehend the thugs who unleashed the racial violence and also failed to investigate those who had organized the violence? Eye witness accounts show that in some of the racial attacks there, the police just stood by without stopping and apprehending the thugs. This was the same observation noted during the “May 13” pogrom, namely, the security forces did not play the professional role expected of them.
