Tun Hanif Omar on Dato Harun Idris and May 13th.

With Thanks to Dr Ashaari Imran bin Azman Shah.

Dear Tun Hanif Omar,

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakkatu

Thank you very much for agreeing to this ‘email interview’. I’m one of the grandsons of the late Dato Harun and have been doing some research into his story especially after the surfacing of his personal diaries written in the years 1977 to 1981. After reading through his diaries and meeting a variety of people I’m quite convinced that it’s a story worth knowing- full of ups and downs. So far consistently I have found that people mentioned that he was very sincere with the work not only as MB of Selangor but other activities as well such as his work with the national and Selangor football team.

Whilst I was speaking to Tan Sri Azman Hashim, he did mention that you are writing a book (i’m looking forward to reading it!) about events during your time as IGP. I’m particularly interested as I’m sure you remember, that my grandfather was involved in a number of incidents involving the police; 1) May 13th riots 2) Corruption charges with regards to the Muhammad Ali vs Joe Bugner fight 3) When UMNO youth held him in his house at 10 Jalan Langgak Duta.

I appreciate that these topics may be of a sensitive nature but I would be extremely grateful for whatever information you would be willing to share as I can use it to piece the puzzle of my grandfathers story togethe.

I list the questions below to answer at your leisure

1) What are your initial memories of Dato Harun Idris?

2) How did you find him as a person? What did you think about him when he was the MB of Selangor?

3) Just out of interest, when the Muhammad Ali vs Joe Bugner fight was in KL in happening- did you have any direct involvement in policing the fight

4) Of course- after the fight, it resulted in a lot of political turmoil for Dato Harun which resulted in him being charged and sentenced on counts of corruption, forgery and others with relation to the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank and Bank Rakyat cases. The events leading to him going to Pudu Jail is what I hope you can share some memories about.

After multiple appeals – all the way to the UK Privy council, he came back to Subang Airport to be surrounded by (estimates say) about 2000 people- did you have to organise and policing for that spontaneous gathering of people- this would have been on the 20th of February

5) Very soon after his return from London, the order for Dato Harun to report to Pudu jail was issued and on the 23rd of February 1978 UMNO Youth Selangor decided to prevent him from reporting to jail which resulted and a kind of ‘siege’ of his house at 10 Langgak Duta. Speaking to Dato Fahmi (his then politcal secretary), he mentions that you were involved in the negotiations to try and settle the matter peacefully- I’ve also read that a number of UMNO leaders came to try and pacify the situation including Tunku Abdul Rahman and Dato Senu Rahman. Do you have any recollection of how those meetings to try and pacify the situation were conducted? Was there a genuine threat of violence? What was the atmosphere in Kuala Lumpur like at the time?

6) In connection with that siege- I have also head rumours that Sarawak rangers were brought in to surround the house with a possible plan to storm it if Dato Harun did not come out- Is there any truth to this?

7) Lastly I feel compelled to ask about May 13th as there is quite a popular narrative that suggests that Dato Harun was directly responsible for this- Do you have any thoughts you can share on this?

I look forward to reading your replies to these questions. I hope you and your family are well

Kind regards,

Dr Ashaari Imran bin Azman Shah

Tun Hanif’s reply

DATO HARUN IDRIS

I first heard about Dato Sri Harun Idris after I had joined special branch at federal police hq at Bluff Road {now bkt aman} in 1962. He was the MB selangor and some police officers spoke fondly of him as ”our former DPP” and he used to spend time with us at our mess {the lake view inspectors’ mess, which used to be where the planetarium is}”

Pro govt malays proudly talked of Dato Sri Harun as the only Malay adun in selangor who could take on the opposition leader, Tan Chee Khoon, president of the labour party of Malaya, who had the reputation of presenting well-prepared speeches in parliament and in dun selangor.

I was proud to hear all this as i felt a certain affinity to Dato Sri harun, a harahap mandailing. i am part nasution mandailing.

I had known Dato Sri hHarun’s elder brother, Dato Kamaruddin Idris, the MB Trengganu who used to attend the MCKK bog’s meeting in Kuala Kangsar and also visit his younger son, Suhaimi. I was the head prefect of MCKK in those years 1954 – 1956. on one of those visits in 1956, my first cousin who had just joined MCKK at lower 6 mentioned to me that we were related. until this day i don’t know how!

I didn’t know Dato Sri Harun personally until mid-1969 during the early mageran days when i was called out to the house of Raja Nur Jasmin @ Mrs Robert Middleton, as a distraught Dato Harun was there trying to persuade his second wife, Datin Sri Shariffah Salmah, to return home with him. They had had a family misunderstanding and Datin Sri wanted to spend the night with her friend, Raja Nur Jasmin who was the 2nd o.c. women police at one time and was married to Robert Middleton, former deputy commissioner of police, Sabah.

When I arrived at Raja Nur’s and spoke to Dato Sri Harun, I found him to be a gentle person who looked quite like my said cousin’s father who was also a gentle person. I had no problem at all in persuading him to let Datin Sri Salmah to stay overnight with Raja nur.

Dato sri Harun had a very good reputation as MB selangor. He was the people’s man and easy going – no airs about him. He mixed very well with all communities and was helpful and attentive to their problems. He had built up the selangor and national football teams into formidable and multi-racial ones – and this was in the days when malaysians were football crazy! and he was a favourite manager with the players to many of whom he had allocated special and endearing nick-names like “towkay” for Dato Soh Chin Aun, the capable captain, and “spider-man” for Datuk Arumugam, the almost invincible goal-keeper.

No, i was not involved in the policing of the Muhammad Ali – Joe Bugner fight in 1975. I had an invitation to attend but was too busy with work. The policing was done at the selangor chief police officer’s level.

Yes, the aftermath of the fight was a sorry tale for Dato Sri Harun. The world seemed to crash on him after the fight. I had no hand in the investigations into his cases. They were mostly done by the BPR, predecessor of SPRM but to me it must have started as far back as 1972 when i had just taken over as CPO selangor and UMNO was having its AGM at DBP.

At that AGM it became clear that there were several camps jostling for a pivotal succession position in the leadership. The new Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak had praised his long time friend Tan Sri Ghazalie Shafie for something or other, and it did not go down well with either the Dato Seri Harun Idris crowd or the Tunku Razaleigh – Dato Abdullah Ahmad of Kok Lanas group, although Tan Sri Ghazali was married to Dato Seri Harun’s niece, Khatijah. It probably inspired Dato Seri Harun to try and build up some funds or a war-chest to finance his political future.

Until that time, no UMNO politician was allowed to build up his personal war-chest. this was to prevent the development of warlordism and corruption in UMNO. only 4 top UMNO officials were allowed to appeal for and receive donations for the UMNO political fund. they were Tunku Abdul Rahman himself, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman and Tun Ismail Ali.

It was soon rumoured that when the Hong kong and Shanghai bank had requested for permission to relocate or rebuild its Kuala Lumpur headquarters, money had been asked for, and paid. Then the Muhammad Ali – Joe Bugner fight in 1975 in Kuala Lumpur was also rumoured to assist in the building up of Dato Seri Harun’s war-chest. Unfortunately, the sponsorship of the fight involved Bank Rakyat which lost several million ringgit in the venture. There were of course rumours of corruption and demands for investigation. These demands were also made again and again by the opposition in parliament. they set the anti-corruption agency – BPR – moving.

Tun Razak tried to save Harun by recommending him to accept a posting to the UN. At first, he agreed, then asked for time to do an umrah. On his return I was told by Tun Mustafa that he had dinner with the Tun at Tun Mustapha’s section 5 pj house where Dato Harun’s relatives and political aides strongly advised him against accepting the UN appointment which they were sure would end his political career.

As a result, Harun went to see Razak again to tell him he was not leaving the country to which Razak sadly said that he would have no option but to let the BPR action run its course.

By the time it came to that, Razak had died in England and Tun Hussein Onn was PM. As Razak had told me, Hussein was his witness in his meetings with Harun; so, he was au fait on the matter and allowed the law to take its course.

After his conviction and sentence to jail, Harun managed to get a stay of execution on his sentence pending his appeal. He took his appeal all the way to the privy council and failed. on his return to selangor on 20th feb 1978, about 2000 supporters greeted him. there was a lot of emotion but nothing untoward happened. Adequate crowd control was provided by the selangor police.

As he had exhausted his appeal the court ordered the IGP to place him under arrest and deliver him to the prison to serve his sentence. I did not react for a couple of days. When I went to visit the PM who was under great pressure from UMNO groups to do something to avoid harun going to jail, a senior UMNO youth leader accosted me outside the PM’s office and asked me why I have not complied with the court order yet. Very pointedly I told him not to worry about me. I would certainly obey the court but as to how and when i would do it, it would be by my judgement and i threw him a question: why had not he and other UMNO leaders pledge their support for the PM who was alone being buffetted by members of UMNO selangor? he kept quiet.

That evening I had a call from the pm to visit him at his residence. There he told me that some hot- headed UMNO members were going to harangue him in his house and, he added, menacingly, he was a malay and no one was going to attack {serang} him in his house. He then asked me for my revolver which I gave to him.

Mind you, he was a captain in the British Indian army during WW2 and quite capable of handling all kinds of weapons. I then went to join his guards at the gate to make sure no hot-heads managed to get close to the pm. I allowed a very few numbers of respectable UMNO members to enter. All went well as far as security was concerned.

Then I received a briefing at the Selangor contingent control centre. UMNO members, malay pahlawan and “magicians” had made three concentric circles around Dato Seri Harun’s house, vowing to fight to prevent the police from arresting Harun. Outside and at a distance the kl police had mounted a couple of road-blocks to monitor visitors and to prevent too many people to get to the house. I ordered the police not to task any non-malay in this operation, then called for sr asst commissioner Yahaya Yeop Ishak. He and I had learnt the American police echelon drill for crowd control, asked him to quickly train a company of police field force troopers in the drill and the following day to deploy them in formation across the road from Harun’s house, they were to be in their best battle order with hackles in their berets. They were to stand at ease with their rifles with bayonets fixed. The bayonets were dull. I ordered for them to be chromed so that they would glisten in the sun. I wanted to play a psychological game.

The next day I visited Selangor contingent control centre again for another briefing. I was told that everything was ready and in place. I took CPO selangor, Sr Asst Commissioner Mansor Mohd Noor, a very close friend of Dato Harun, to the scene. there, commanding a roadblock on Jalan Duta was ASP Kenny Woodworth arguing with some UMNO youth who wanted to get to Dato Harun’s house. Mansor was very angry and embarrassed because I had told him not to task any non-malay officer in the operation. We sent Kenny back. My field force boys were in position and were already having an effect on the crowd “protecting” Harun. For some it was their parangs against our rifles and bayonets. Already the bomoh magicians had disappeared.

I returned home for a quick change and received a call from Harun’s son Mazlan, i think, asking for a meeting. we met at selangor police headquarters. He was accompanied by his friend and Harun’s aide, Fahmi. Harun wanted an honourable way of surrendering to the police. So, disguised in a wig he came out and surrendered to his close friend, Sr Asst Commissioner Mansor.

I was completely relieved, happy and also sad.

I did not meet Tunku or Dato Senu Abdul Rahman personally but they went to the scene and spoke to Mansor whom they both knew very well and was from their state of Kedah. They asked for the whole exercise to end peacefully and for Harun to be given his due respect.

All these took place less than 10 years after the infamous May 13, 1969 incident. At that time an overwhelming number of non-malays believed that Harun had caused the incident which led to over 200 deaths and many weeks of curfew. So, there was heavy food-stocking around kuala lumpur and motorists gave Jalan Duta a wide berth. the non-malays in the immediate area had evacuated their families. Right across was the house of justice T.H. Ong. He remained indoors and must have finished off his wine cellar because towards that last evening the police were called by his servants to evacuate him.

My field force boys were from the Central {KL} Brigade. i don’t think they were sarawak field force, let alone the Sarawak Rangers {military}

When the May 13, 1969 incident occurred, I was OCPD Ipoh. In the morning of May 14th, I was ordered to report to Kuala Lumpur to join the mageran staff as principal staff officer {police}. I received a call from Sr Asst Commissioner Zamani Abu Samah, commander of of brigade Ulu Kinta. He wanted to apprise me of how the incident occurred since he was right across the road from Harun’s MB selangor residence, he was visiting his mother.

He saw hundreds of malays on the roadside outside of Harun’s residence. Many were armed with parangs. Many more were in the compound of Harun’s residence listening to Harun’s address made while Harun was standing on the roof of a bus. Then a malay motor cyclist rode in fast shouting that a gombak malay procession had been attacked by the chinese in setapak. To a man the malays on the roadside rose up. Two chinese cyclists passing by were hacked to death. A chinese driven mercedes benz was stopped and the driver killed. seeing this Zamani decided to go straight back to Ulu Kinta to prepare his men for any eventuality or order.

on 16th may, mageran had its first meeting. Towards the end of it a minister suggested that the IGP look into the case for arrest of Dato Harun for orchestrating the riots. I raised my hand and mentioned what SACP Zamani had related to me. Therefore if the racial clash had first started in Setapak when Dato Harun was addressing the crowd in the compound of his residence, then he might not have been responsible for sparking off the unfortunate riots. mageran then tasked me to form a police task force to ascertain the truth. A multi-racial SB group was formed to record statements of witnesses. One member still alive is Dato Noordin Omar, former CPO Pahang and Perak. Based on these statements the national operations council {NOC} report was prepared by me and lt. Col {later general} Ghazali bin Che Mat, and Encik Hamzah Majid {now dato} of Wisma Putra.

Two ministers who could not accept that Dato Harun was blameless, were nominated by mageran as joint chairmen to comb through the evidence to establish the truth. After several days of poring through the evidence they conceded. Then a consultant firm, Eric White, was asked to scrutinise and only then did mageran accept the report and had it published.

Who mooted the planned UMNO procession? it was UMNO’s Kampong Baru winning candidate, Ahmad Razali. After 2 days of opposition party celebratory processions – on 11th May by Gerakan and on 12th by DAP, when serious insults were hurled at UMNO and malays in general, Ahmad Razali reported to Dato Harun that his followers demanded that he should also hold a procession in answer, as he himself had won his seat. On 12thevening he had secured a police permit for his procession scheduled after Maghrib on 13th may. His followers then went about encouraging malays from kl and other parts of selangor to join in. Some of his followers had encouraged the malays to come armed as they might be attacked by chinese thugs.

On the morning of 13th may dato harun held a meeting of Selangor alliance leaders and election candidates to discuss the situation in respect of the formation of the Selangor govt. In the election in selangor the incumbent govt had won 14 out of 28 seats. the DAP had won 9 seats, the Gerakan 4 seats and an independent 1 seat. Before the election the Gerakan had announced that should it and the DAP win enough seats together then Gerakan would go along with the DAP to form the govt.

In the midst of Dato Harun’s meeting, Dato Tahir Majid, Selangor UMNO information chief brought in 2 Gerakan emissaries of Dr Tan Chee Khoon, the Gerakan president, with the message that the alliance party could go ahead to form the govt as Gerakan was not going to ally with the DAP which surprised the meeting. Then V. David, a Gerekan and labour leader rang in to confirm Dr Tan Chee Khoon’s message. Thus, at that point in time Dato Harun and the alliance party was under no pressure. They could form the govt. No reason to run amok. Ahmad Razali then informed that his procession for that evening had succeeded in getting a police permit. Hearing this other alliance leaders and election candidates indicated they too would like to join in the procession. Hearing this Dato Harun said that since it looked like being a large procession, he would like to lead it to make sure that it was going to be peaceful. He would therefore want the participants to gather at his house earlier so that he could address them.

In the meantime, the OCPD Kuala Lumpur held a meeting to plan the security of the procession. At this meeting head SB Selangor, ACP Liew Wing Lin briefed that SB intelligence indicated that some chinese thugs were planning to attack the procession in 3 places – Chow Kit, further down Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, and at Chan Sow Lin. On this basis the federal riot unit commander, DSP Nathan said he would put 3 troops on the ground to secure these 3 places: ASP Tam Kong Weng’s troop in Chow Kit, ASP Shariman Manaf’s troop further down Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. He himself would follow ASP Low’s troop to Chan Sow Lin.

Before ASP Low and DCP Nathan could reach Chan Sow Lin they received a message from control to proceed to Setapak as it was alleged that a racial riot was occurring there. They turned back to go to Setapak and passed Dato Harun’s residence and saw everything calm there. At Setapak cars were burning and a selangor pewter craftsman was dead. This proves that the may 13, 1969 incident started in Setapak when a non-malay crowd outside the movie theater jeered at a Gombak malay procession trying to make its way to Dato Harun’s residence.

The same story was repeated by Mr low, a photoshop owner in Setapak and brother of ASP l Low, the troop commander, by the workers of Great Wall Photo Studio, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, and the owner of Wetex furniture shop in Chow Kit whose shop was burned down.

TUN HANIF OMAR

14TH APRIL 2021.

Sent from my iPhone