The history lesson that can be derived from May 13, 1969 is indeed significant and should be open to discussion since it was brought up so dramatically at the recent Umno general assembly.

After May 13, the whole nation, traumatised by the scale of the violence, decided that all issues were best left in the hand of the national leaders and politicians who bit by bit, took on the role of the ruling elite.

Laws were passed giving more and more powers to the executive so that today we have an emasculated judiciary, a rubber-stamp Parliament and an attorney-general who has been accused of fabricating evidence on regional TV but has not denied it.

Add on political parties where the top leadership has not challenged for years and you have some sort of political lineage that has replaced the traditional role of the royalty.

We have seen the dramatic decline in the quality of teaching standards in national schools, the creation of thousands of graduates unfit for the job market, the loss of our best talents to overseas competitors, the influx and absorption of hundreds of thousands of poorly qualified migrants and the continuing of an affirmation policy that does not create self-confidence but rather dependence.

So the lesson that we should learn from the May 13 incident is that the people who had the authority and the power to do something good for the country have failed miserably through bad policies or poor implementation, or both. From this lesson, the ordinary people who have been patient for 35 years should now awake and say 'No more!'.