I have instructed my lawyers to institute criminal and civil proceedings against an UMNO blogger Syed Akhbar Ali for a defamatory tweet late last night insinuating that I am a communist and a racialist who is anti-Malay who caused the May 13 race riots.

Syed Akhbar’s tweet carried a graphic of me in the garb of Mao Tse Tung, alleging that I am “Bapa 13 Mei”, and accusing me of having caused the May 13 race riots in 1969 because of my anti-Malay statements and slogans, with a caption “’MELAYU KELUAR! APA LAGI DUDUK SINI, KITA HENTAM LU, SEKARANG KITA SUDAH ADA KUASA” LIM KIT SIANG (BAPA 13 MEI).

The graphic in Syed Akbar’s tweet alleged that I had made the following statements in the following places and dates:

1. Menggunakan slogan “Malai-Si” bermaksud “Mati Melayu”.

2. “Apa polis boleh buat, kita Raja. Buang sama polis Melayu.”
– (11 Mei 69, Bukit Bintang)

3. “Mati Melayu, sakai pergi masuk hutan”.
– (11 Mei 69, Jalan Bukit Bintang).

4. “KL sekarang cina punya”.

– (11 Mei 69, Jalan Changkat Dollah)

5. “Melayu balik kampung, melayu sekarang tiada kuasa. Sekarang kita Cina sudah control.”

– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman)

6. “Melayu keluar…! Apa lagi duduk sini, kita hentam lu, sekarang kita sudah ada kuasa…”
– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Khir Kampung Baru)

7. “…semua Melayu kasi habis, kasi halau semua polis.”
– (12 Mei 69, depan Balai Polis, Jalan Pudu)

8. “Apa ini Melayu, kita sudah perintah dia negeri, ini negeri bukan melayu punya, mata-mata lancau…!”
– (12 Mei 1969)

9. “Butuh Melayu, Malai si, pergi mati Melayu…”
– (12 Mi 69, Jalan Canvel).

10. “Ini negeri bukan Melayu punya, kita mahu kasi halau semua Melayu”
– (12 Mei 69, Jalan Bukit Bintang).

These are dastardly lies. Not only I have never said them (in fact, there are words and terms in this category which I had never used in my life), I was never in Kuala Lumpur from May 11 – 13, 1969 during the May 13 riots which the police Special Branch can vouch from their records.

There has recently been an escalation in the language and rhetoric of hate, intolerance, bigotry and extremism based on lies and falsehood.

Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, age or gender must unite and declare that they will not allow these extremists and merchants of hate, intolerance and bigotry to destroy the peace, unity, harmony and the future of multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural Malaysia by their language, rhetoric and politics of hate and deceit.

I call on moderate and patriotic Malaysians to unite to say No To Extremism and to have Zero Tolerance for the politics of lies and hate.

Let my decision to institute criminal and civil proceedings against Syed Akbar Ali be the first blow of decent, moderate and patriotic Malaysians to save Malaysia from extremism and to declare “Zero Tolerance for the Politics of Extremism, Hate and Lies in Malaysia”.