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The fear of May 13 is over, enter the hope of May 9

LETTER | My mother's family lived smack in the middle of the chaos that erupted on May 13, 1969.

I have lived all my life hearing the stories of May 13. In the middle of the story of chaos and people who never returned home, one story always stood out for me.

That day their little village in the city, rose up and looked after each other. My grandma’s home was turned into a community cooking station as my uncles were the only ones who could go out and get food. You see my grandfather and uncles were cops and during those tense days, only they were allowed out.

So they, a mixed community worked as one and looked after each other.

But they never forgot the fear. I have heard about that fear for my whole life. The same fear stopped them from daring to make any changes to the government. The same fear made them convince their children to vote with fear.

Which is why I never thought I will see a change of government in my country in this lifetime. Every single past analysis I have written has never predicted this as I have always cancelled any thoughts of it coz I am quite a cynic.

But I guess at some point, people decided enough of being scared. How long more can we be afraid. How long more can we continue to be ruled by fear.

In the 49 years since May 13, the country has finally stopped being afraid and changed its governing party.

And it happened in a democratic and peaceful manner. Malaysians proved to the world that we can do it without rioting.

We have always prided ourselves on the importance of doing it the right way and this is one of our biggest achievements. We have inspired people from around the world and I have different nationality friends telling me this and I believe this will spark change across the region.

Change is important, change is inevitable. Change must happen regularly to keep the governing bodies on their toes. Let us not cultivate arrogance in our government ever again.

My personal wish to this new government is to one day open the files of May 13 not to conduct a witch hunt, but to give closure to many folks that were present on that day. But that should be a long time from now.

May we never be ruled by fear again. For those who are still afraid of past fears that have been ingrained in you, it's okay just breathe.

Many of us will continue to be neutral voices that question both sides.

I hope today you start believing that we are Malaysians first. It is essential that we put the interest of the country and our brothers and sisters first before our personal beliefs.

We now have a new date to never forget - May 9.


The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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