KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — More than half of the young, civil servants and ethnic Malays in a domestic survey think that the May 13, 1969 riots could happen again, a poll has found.
Even though the bloodiest riot in Malaysian history is barely taught in schools, 52 per cent of those surveyed between 21 and 30 think that the riots could happen again, according to an unpublished Merdeka Centre survey.
Fifty-six per cent of those working in the government or government-linked companies and 53 per cent of Malays also considered it a high possibility for different races to turn against each other in a violent manner.
Malaysians are constantly reminded of the tragedy by politicians and warned by certain groups that the bloody riot could repeat itself, if certain sections of the society are not protected or if certain issues were questioned.
Just last month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also the Umno president opened the Umno general assembly by screening slides of the bloody race riots and the communist attacks in Malaya.
The move seemed to be an apparent reminder to the country’s ruling party of the importance of national unity and the dangers of discord among the Malays.
In a recent interview, Merdeka Centre director Ibrahim Suffian said out of the 1012 respondents interviewed over the course of one week in July this year, those between the ages of 41 and 50 trailed behind the youngest group surveyed, at 45 per cent, followed by the group in between the two age groups at 41 per cent.
Fifty-four per cent of those above the age of 60 said they did not think it would happen again.
Meanwhile, an overwhelming 67 per cent of the Chinese said “no”, while 53 per cent of Malays said otherwise.
Forty-seven per cent of the Indians also think the violent riot could happen again.
“The Chinese community for the most part put May 13 behind them, but our survey finds that Malays remain susceptible to insecurities about the past.
“It is likely that this is due to the continued economic disadvantage felt by the community.
“Given that many people, Malays included are concerned about cost of living issues and the fear of being economically left behind, those insecurities can be cultivated to generate fear,” Ibrahim said.
More than half of those with access to the mainstream media polled also share the same view, followed by 46 per cent of those with Internet access, he added.
In contrast, 61 per cent of those surveyed with access to alternative media, were more optimistic and did not think the riots will be repeated.
Ibrahim said prior to 2008, the numbers of Malays who believed that their community’s political position in the country as insecure, was only about 40 per cent.
Since 2008, the level of insecurity has crept up to be around 50 to 55 per cent, he said, adding that it was probably due to dominance of issues related to race and religion in the media.
Coincidently, the crackdown on Shiites late last year also came at the point in time when fuel prices was raised, Ibrahim noted.
Treading carefully, he said there is a possibility of “some new ethnic or race related issue” in the future as concerns over cost of living increases or the widely resisted goods and services tax could lead to “stresses in our society”.
“However we are not likely going to see any major flare-up of violence as it is not a latent strain in our society, if it is to happen, somebody has to make it happen,” he said with conviction.
“If it were to happen, it has to happen in places people of various races and economic classes rub against each other and places with some history of tension and resentment”.
