YOURSAY | Harun Idris and May 13: The truth can cut both ways

[superadmin]

Vijay47: Ashaari Azman Shah, reading the valiant efforts you made to re-establish your grandfather’s reputation, one can readily conclude that you have all the hallmarks of a true Umno leader.

Heck, you can also be a university professor! After all, former Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris had many non-Malay friends, he had a passionate interest in sports, he led the national football team to great heights, and he even arranged the Muhammad Ali-Joe Bugner fight in Kuala

So how can anyone hold his alleged involvement in the May 13, 1969 riots against him? How can anyone hold the Holocaust against Adolf Hitler’s aide, Heinrich Himmler, who had been a boy scout in his youth - it was just one of those molehill things!

You credit your grandfather with the creation of PKNS (Selangor State Development Corporation). Very true. But let us not overlook the fact that PKNS, like most government-linked companies (GLCs), is a citadel of racism.

Equally true are two seemingly contradictory statements you made - that he was imprisoned for corruption and that he “was too farsighted”. Again, very true.

Had he lived in more current times, especially with a corrupt association, he would have been hailed as a shameless leader of the race by his fan club.

The Pulitzer Prize is assured for you, Ashaari, that when you asked former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad whether he, Malaysia’s second prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein, and your dear grand-dad had any role in the May 13 tragedy, he replied in the negative. Maybe you will even get the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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