10. SECRET SOCIETIES AND POLITICS | The May 13 Tragedy

Secret societies took roots in this country with the arrival of the first waves of Chinese immigrants in the Inst century. In the absence of strong legal, security and financial infrastructures, secret societies played an important role and their first recorded political activity look place about the middle of the last century when they contrived to create chaos in the state of Perak which led to British intervention and the Treaty of Pangkor in 1874. The role of secret societies has been and continues to be a destructive one. They are involved in "protection" rackets, extortion, kidnapping, robbery and other felonies.

These societies had always maintained a traditional hold over certain sections of the Chinese community, and their activities had intensified in recent years. During the last General Elections, secret societies exercised a certain amount of influence on the political activities of a number of candidates. In some areas, candidates found it impossible to campaign without the payment of "protection money". Coercion and intimidation were the familiar methods of getting support during the last political campaign in certain areas, especially in Kuala Lumpur. Some of these secret society agents, chauvinistically motivated, are dedicated to creating racial tension for the purpose of weakening the country.

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A definite link has been established between secret societies and the racial clashes in Kuala Lumpur, and some of these secret society thugs are known to be members of Communist-dominated branches of the Labour Party of Malaya (LPM). They acted for their own specific objectives, to create and maintain a stale of tension so that their extortion rackets could flourish.

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