Mylongkang memories of May 13th, 1969
Pic from archives
This post is a follow up to lillian’s post
As you read you must remember I was just a child so the perspective is from a child’s perspective.
Character : male, Chinese, middle aged.
I still recall the day as if it were only yesterday. I was still a child. We were playing hide and seek. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. I opened my eyes and saw nobody. There was a FRU or federal reserve unit truck or ang tau peng ( red hat soldier as we used to call them )
Using hailers they ordered us to go indoors immediately. I hid behind a pillar face down. They gave us half an hour to do so. We knew then there was a curfew on. I rushed to one of the houses where my mother was playing mahjong. My mother managed in a round about way avoiding open spaces to bring all four of us children home. At home my dad was worried.
We saw my father nailing pieces of stick across the door. On these same pieces of stick, we would place a bar whenever we were home. If anybody tried to bring down the door, the wooden bar was meant to stop the door from being forced open. My father had three daughters.
Word spread among the neighbors to bang kerosene tins if there were strangers or if we were in need of emergency help or starving. We were told to look out for each other. Together we were safe. We were only given a few hours to carry out our normal activities.
We heard terrible stories and we heard stories of wisdom and courage. Even without the curfew we barely had enough to eat. We survived. We just ate less.Our rice was kept in an earthen jar. All through my growing up years we would anxiously look at its contents.
Bengbeng | interesting characters
i remember it well. I hid behind the pillar on the fourth floor. it was the first time i had seen a weapon. behind the pillars were all the children. we were scared stiff. the voice was fierce. this was no RTM stuff. it was a warning and nobody were to be out in the open as it was curfew time. in retrospect they were there perhaps to ensure peace and no untoward incidents happen. but we heard many stories. my mum was in the first house on the ground floor nearest to the FRU truck. the mahjong game was abandoned as everybody worried how to go home safely.
its a bad day, but the more i find out about how it happened, the more i don’t trust our government
Bengbeng, how old were you then? I didnt’ realise that you had already ‘arrived’ into the world!
Somehow, my parents did not fear and allowed us to play in our front garden. When we were not in the garden, it was that year that I was taught to play mahjong seeing that we didn’t go to school and my mum kept us occupied with card games and mahjong.
We still ate normal….how come huh? Long story if I go on about May 13th. Great post.
blog about it lah
I wasn’t born till then.
What ever happened that day, I’m sure I won’t be telling my kids (not that I have one). Simply because, in those days, people were uneducated, news was hard to come by and word of mouth means more than anything.
Today, I believe Malaysia can shelter any race or anyone. As long as I live, I will fight the same fight like anyone else. I will fight for freedom.
In people like you, lies the hope of a new and prosperous nation free of corruption and full of ideals
Surprise, surprise. Beng beng not young either….:P
Our family experience -
http://chickenfeet.wordpress.com/2007/05/20/may-13/
thanks..yr post is eye opening. thank God yr dad is still alive.
I am not born yet but I read many on this.
so many ppl seem to blog about it.those horrible time that my parents refuse to speak as they said we should’t be talking bout it..
I have no memory of that day, where can I read more about it?
why dont u try kakiayam’s blog?
Wah, BengBeng quite old leh
Yeah…”that” date no one really knows what happened…it’s like a blackhole…
i think we shud b transparent abt it and then move on