Suddenly I saw this parang coming out from the bamboo fence at (then Selangor Menteri Besar) Harun Idris' house, the (Chinese) boy was killed and thrown into the drain...

"That really traumatised me. My God! It happened right in front of me," recalled author Ahmad Mustapha Hassan, expanding on his account of the May 13 racial riots in 1969, which broke out in Kuala Lumpur.

The Chinese boy, he said, was working at a coffee shop near Harun's residence and was going around delivering drinks to people, mainly Umno Youth members, who had gathered at the house for a planned rally that day.

Harun's residence in Kuala Lumpur's Kampung Baru was the major gathering point of Umno members just before the riot.

"He was just a youngster, a teenager. For no reason, he was killed," said Mustapha in a recent interview, who appeared to be still disturbed by the incident.

The first-time author and former aide to two prime ministers wrote 'The Unmaking of Malaysia', launched yesterday by ex-deputy premier Musa Hitam. It includes an eyewitness account of the May 13 riots which took 196 lives, according to the official figure.

Then an Umno Youth committee member, Ahmad Mustapha was involved in organising the wing's rally, based on a spontaneous decision made on May 12 to counter a procession being held by the opposition to celebrate their electoral victory.

The Alliance Party had suffered a major setback in that year's general election.

"At that meeting we decided to show our strength - (to show) that we didn't lose the elections but were also victorious. We also wanted to celebrate that victory," he said.

However, he claimed that Umno was "totally caught unawares" when a riot broke out on May 13 and that he still does not know who should be held responsible for the bloody riots.

White headbands

Recounting his version, Ahmad Mustapha said those gathered at Harun's house were preparing to march to Jalan Chow Kit, in the heart of the city centre.

"I was (among those at) the head of the march. We were told there was a riot at Chow Kit, so we decided to go back to Harun's residence," he said.

It was at this juncture that he saw the young Chinese boy killed in front of the house.

"The first thing I thought was there was going to be trouble. We went inside the residence and we were all issued with a white headband each," he said.

Although puzzled as to why the headbands were being distributed if the parade was to celebrate electoral victory, he said all this happened in the midst of confusion.

"Nobody was in control. Only the mob was in control," he said.

Denying that core Umno Youth leaders had anything to do with "the mob", he writes in his book that "irresponsible elements" had joined the wing's parade and turned it into a mob situation that was beyond the control of the organisers.

He also claimed that, to date, he does not know why "weapons" were being kept at Harun's house.

"Were they trying to take the weapons to go out (to the streets) under cover of darkness?" he asked, adding that he did not see Harun ( photo ) that day.

Asked if he is of the view that the riots were pre-planned, he replied: "I think it was kind of a pre-planned thing (in the way) that ... they thought there might be a problem, so it's better to be prepared.

"I wouldn't know whether there was any plan for an attack but the idea was to be prepared."

Ill-prepared for rally

His take on the turn of event was that "some groups" had tried to go all out to take revenge.

"They want to take blood revenge, but this is not what was wanted by the whole group," he said.

Upon reflection, Ahmad Mustapha writes, the Umno Youth-led rally turned out to be a chaotic one due to the organisers' "lack of experience" and the absence of a proper briefing in advance on crowd-control measures.

"Come to think of it, we were actually ill-prepared for this parade. It was just a kind of spur-of-the-moment decision that I and the rest of the committee members took yesterday (May 12, 1969)," he says in the book.

"At the meeting, we did not discuss the route but we were told that the Selangor Umno Youth had taken the lead in organising this parade, but the central committee members must lead the procession. That was the mis-communication I felt in the whole affair. But since it (the march) was to take place, so be it."

The May 13 riots have been a frequent source of public debate in view of the absence of full disclosure about what had happened.

Earlier this year, academician Dr Kua Kia Soong ( photo ) in a new book argued that the riots were actually an attempt at a coup d'etat within a faction in Umno to oust then premier Tunku Abdul Rahman.

This contradicted the official version which has portrayed the riots as being triggered by 'provocation' by supporters of the Chinese-dominated opposition while celebrating their electoral victory. This has been rebutted by opposition parties.

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