COMMENT The release yesterday of Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese junta and the jubilation her freedom must have brought to millions of her supporters in that unfortunate country prompts thoughts on the what-might-have-been in our country in May 1969.

This was when, in the immediate aftermath of the riots of May 13 that year, a shell-shocked Tunku Abdul Rahman was propositioned by top military officers: they said they would run Malaysia, put things in order, and then return the country to civilian rule...