The Malaysian Albatross of May 13, 1969 Racial Riots

一九六九年五月十三日種族暴亂：馬來西亞的歷史創傷

馬拉基．愛德溫．維塔馬尼(Malachi Edwin VETHAMANI)

《中山人文學報》 49期 (2020/07) Pp. 19-41

摘要

In this paper I will examine how Malaysians who write in the English language explore the incident that has a strong psyche scarring on this nation. The May 13, 1969 riots appear in many of the works in Malaysian writing in English. The inter-racial violence resulted in deaths and damage to property in many parts of Malaysia 50 years ago this year. The consequences of the incident have been far-reaching and have resulted in the passing of various policies and laws which has impacted not only on the re-structuring of Malaysian society but also the management of the relationships among the multi-ethnic communities in the country. They include the National Economic Policy, the National Ideology (the Rukun Negara), the National Culture Policy and the further strengthening of the International Security Act. These policies and legislation have been further accentuated by the emphasis on the racial dichotomy of bumiputera (the Malays and other indigenous people) and non-bumiputera (all other ethnic groups of immigrant descent, especially, Chinese and Indians). Though the Malaysian creative writers have touched on the incident with both caution and sensitivity, Malaysian politicians continue to blatantly use it as a threat for their propaganda of instilling fear in the non-Malay populace. A range of creative writings in English from as early as 1970 till 2019 and critical writings on the 13 May 1969 are discussed in this paper.

關鍵字

May 13th Incident ； Malaysian English writings ； guilt

並列摘要

本文旨在探討馬來西亞英文作家如何看待對國家造成嚴重心靈創傷的五一三事件。一九六九年的五一三騷亂情況，呈現在許多馬英作品之中。五十年前的這一天，許多人因這場暴力衝突而傷亡和財產損失。這起事件的後果深遠，導致各種政策和法律的制訂與施行，左右了馬來西亞社會的重構，也影響了國內多元民族社會關係的處理方式。這些政策和法律包括「新經濟政策」、「國家原則」（Rukun Negara）、「國家文化政策」，政府加強以「內部安全法令」控管言論。同時由於土著（馬來人與其他原主民）與非土著（其他族羣，特別是華人和印度人）的種族二分法，結果進一步撕裂族羣關係。雖然馬來西亞的創作者多以謹慎和敏感的態度去處理這個事件，但政治人物卻繼續公然將其作為威脅，以達到他們向非馬來民眾灌輸恐懼的宣傳目的。本文討論了從一九七○年至二○一九年間涉及五一三事件的馬英文學作品和評論。

並列關鍵字

五一三事件 ； 馬來西亞英文文學 ； 罪愆

參考文獻

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