Foreword | 13 May 1969

   It gives me great pleasure to pen a few words of introduction for Leon Comber's historical survey of Sino-Malay relations, leading up to the 13 May 1969 disturbances.

     Mr. Comber is indeed well qualified to write this account as he has a good working knowledge of our national language, Bahasa Malaysia, as well as being well versed in Chinese, and as a Malaysian citizen, he is one of the select band of Europeans who has a deep and warm appreciation of our culture and way of life.

    It is the only work I know which attempts to provide in such a clear, concise and objective form the main scenario of Sino-Malay relations in Malaysia for the layman to follow. Mr. Comber's style is lucid and attractive, which makes his book easy to read, and he deals with quite complicated issues in a refreshingly clear way. I feel sure that future scholars will be greatly indebted to Mr. Comber's work for providing the framework on which further detailed research may be carried out.

      I wish Mr. Comber's book all the success which it deserves and I hope that many of our people will read and benefit from it.

(Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra)