Look beyond May 13, M’sians urged
Duo spread message of unity and peace to erase stigma surrounding dark day
PETALING JAYA: Two men have made it their mission to spread the message of unity and peace to Malaysians on a day many would prefer to forget – May 13.
Dressed in their traditional costumes and wearing placards, youth leader Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and his friend Chong Hock Soon handed out some 1,000 letters to people in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor on Saturday.
The letter, which was written by both men, asked people to look beyond May 13.
“The point we want to make is that instead of looking at May 13 as a day in which Malays and Chinese fought one another in 1969, this is a reminder of unity in which we overcome racial differences, riots and protest, and become stronger as a Malaysian society and citizens – regardless of whether you’re a Malay, Chinese or Indian.
“The point is that we are all bound by the Malaysian spirit because we are all Malaysians,” said Syed Saddiq.
Chong said May 13 should be a day to remind Malaysians that they have moved on from such a past and that all communities could work together.
“So, we’ve been working on this and composing this letter of unity to promote the message that yes, we can, and yes, we can have an identity together to work as ‘Saya anak Malaysia’,” said Chong.
In the letter, Syed Saddiq and Chong, who attended the Royal Military College together, said they had grown up with “preconceived racial stereotypes of each other”.
However, they confronted their differences and freed themselves from the “prison of racial ignorance and bigotry”.
“This moment of ‘Anak Malaysia’ was made possible by the meaningful interactions we shared, forged through our common goals of becoming better people, better stu- dents and most importantly, better ‘Anak Malaysia’,” they said.
May 13, they said, was often looked at as a day of disunity that tore the spirit of “Anak Malaysia” apart.
“There will be days when our tolerance will be tested and brotherhood shaken. But we will stand united. We will not falter as we are one people. We are ‘Anak Malaysia’.
“There will be times when the seeds of division might be sown in our Malaysian heart and times when differences are difficult to understand, but remember this, the beauty of Malaysia lies in our harmonious roots of unity,” they said.
“Strong roots of unity which give birth to one people, one common dream, one ‘Anak Malaysia’.”