Tension and friction

To this day, the 1969 general election remains the single most forgettable polls in Malaysia’s history.

It saw the darkest hour of the nation when bloody riots broke out after the Alliance won without a two-thirds majority.

The Government declared a state of emergency, suspending the Constitution and Parliament until February 1971.

The National Operations Council (NOC) and a caretaker Cabinet then governed the country.

At 22, Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye was the youngest candidate to contest in this election, on a DAP ticket.

The polls saw Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad losing his Kota Setar parliamentary seat and he was later expelled from the party for attacking the Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, in an open letter and accusing the Tunku of neglecting the indigenous Malays.

Penang went to the then opposition party Gerakan, which won 16 of the 24 State Assembly seats,

Later, in February 1972, the Alliance and Gerakan formed a coalition government in Penang.

After the May 13 riots, the political leaders tried to build national unity.

They amended the Constitution to forbid discussion, even in Parliament, of certain “sensitive issues”, including the special position of the Malays and of Borneo’s ethnic groups, and the powers of the Malay Rulers.

The amendment also required all government bodies to use Bahasa Malaysia as the official language.

Determined to improve the economic condition of the Malays, the leaders launched a plan called the New Economic Policy.

It was meant to achieve better wealth balance among the races.

The NOC also implemented the Rukunegara and made constitutional amendments.

PAS, which had been in control of Kelantan since 1959, joined the coalition at state and federal levels, with its president Tan Sri Asri Muda signing an agreement in December 1972 to this effect.

The Malaysian economy eventually prospered.

In September 1970, the Tunku stepped down as Prime Minister and was succeeded by Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.