Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz’s agreement with the film Tanda Putera that Chinese individuals caused the May 13, 1969 riot is a “distortion of history”, said DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.

He said that such assertions are a “travesty of truth” as no well-researched film could have concluded as such.

“Nazri has done Malaysian nation-building a great disservice in making the baseless claim that the May 13 riots were sparked by the Chinese, just as it would be most slanderous and most irresponsible for anyone to blame the May 13 riots on the Malays,” he said in a statement.  

He added that by making it seem like the the riots were sparked by Chinese urinating on a flag pole at then-Selangor menteri besar’s residence, the filmmaker was “reckless” and that Nazri was endorsing this.

“It is a downright lie... the May 13 riots were not cause by the Chinese or Malays but by irresponsible individuals who plunged the country into the most tragic and darkest period in the nation’s history,” he said.

He said that the only way to clear this up to have a royal commission of inquiry on the riots to establish the truth once and for all.

Nazri had on Saturday said that the Chinese need not feel guilty over the May 13 riots, which Tanda Putera depicts were sparked by the Chinese.

“I don’t think the entire generation of Chinese today should feel guilty. It is an individual thing.

“If it was committed by individuals, the entire Chinese community may not be held responsible,” he said.

Nazri also said that political parties need not fear the film, which also features the DAP and Gerakan as having held a parade telling Malays to “ balik kampung (return to the kampungs)” after the 1969 polls.

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