Abstract

Abstract:

The May 13 riot, which broke out in the aftermath of the country's third general election in 1969, remains a defining moment in Malaysian politics. Malaysians are well aware that the riot took place even if they are vague about the details, but few are aware that a mass grave for victims of the riot, built 'by the courtesy of the Malaysian government', is located within the Sungai Buloh Leprosarium (SBL).

Historically speaking, a leprosarium segregated pathologized others from the general population, keeping patients out of sight and preventing outsiders from entering. The fact that the mass grave of political victims of the May 13 riot is found in such a space raises several questions. Why was SBL chosen as a burial site for the bodies of May 13 victims? If a cemetery is meant to allow the living to memorialise the dead, what does burying May 13 victims in a segregated space like SBL imply? How does the location of the mass grave affect memories and memorialisation of the riot and of those who died?

In this article I consider these questions by examining conceptual links between political violence, body management, the location of cemeteries and the politics of memory by critically reading the architecture and space of the May 13 mass gravesite. I also look at family narratives, which describe the difficulties families faced in finding out where their loved ones were buried, and show how the narratives serve as negotiated memories within the wider political dynamics of the country after the riot.

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