Ops Lallang – arsonists scot-free while firemen victimized
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad defended one of the darkest human rights chapters of his 22-year administration during his controversial participation at the Suhakam annual human rights conference yesterday when he said: “Ops Lallang was not because people spoke against me. It was because they brought up issues like Chinese education and the like. Because of that, there was a lot of tension between the Chinese and Malays. So the ISA had to be used to dampen the situation.” (News Straits Times)
Mahathir is distorting history.
This is what I said on the occasion of the second anniversary of Ops Lallang on 27th October 1989 (six months after my release from second ISA detention):
On October 26, 1987, one day before the launch of Ops Lallang and my detention, I was speaking in Parliament during the debate on the 1988 budget where I called for a one-year moratorium by all political parties where no racial, language, cultural or religious issues will be created or raised and for every Malaysian to concentrate on the national priority of achieving economic recovery and growth.
The speeches in the book covered the issues which became the prelude for a crackdown against Opposition leaders, government critics, social activists, educationists, trade unionists and religious workers.
In the book’s Introduction, I wrote:
Mahathir is distorting history.
This is what I said on the occasion of the second anniversary of Ops Lallang on 27th October 1989 (six months after my release from second ISA detention):
We (Ops Lallang detainees) were all detained because we were regarded as grave threats to the national security, and the duly elected government of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. But the whole world knows that we were no threats at all to the security of the nation, and this is why none of us served the full two-year detention order – with the first batch being released after six months of detention…It was to prevent such distortion of the history of Ops Lallang that I published the book “Prelude to Operation Lalang” in 1990, containing speeches which I made in Parliament in the 12 months from October 1986 to October 1987, when I was silenced in Parliament for 18 months following my second detention under the ISA.
The real culprits who were responsible for the grave security situation in October 1987 were allowed to roam at large, and when I asked Dr. Mahathir after my release why there were not detained, he said they could not be blamed because they had been provoked into saying and doing the things they did!
Tunku Abdul Rahman cannot be more right when he said Dr. Mahathir was turning Malaysia into a Police State with the Operation Lallang mass arrests. The more often the government resorts to ISA detentions, the greater is the Police State mentality among the top government and security officials.
Although I was not physically abused during my detention, I came across a senior security official during my early days of detention who acted and behaved as if he held the power of life or death over me. I shudder to think what Malaysia would be like if we become a full Police State with no meaningful checks and restraints on the powers of government or security apparatus…
It has been said that those who forget the past are condemned to repeat them. Malaysians will not enjoy human rights and human dignity unless they themselves feel strongly enough to stand up and defend them when they are violated, and to take measures to prevent future violations.
On October 26, 1987, one day before the launch of Ops Lallang and my detention, I was speaking in Parliament during the debate on the 1988 budget where I called for a one-year moratorium by all political parties where no racial, language, cultural or religious issues will be created or raised and for every Malaysian to concentrate on the national priority of achieving economic recovery and growth.
The speeches in the book covered the issues which became the prelude for a crackdown against Opposition leaders, government critics, social activists, educationists, trade unionists and religious workers.
In the book’s Introduction, I wrote:
DAP leaders and I who were detained under the Operation Lallang were accused by the Barisan Nasional Government of creating these multifarious issues in those 12 months, when we were trying to resolve the issues created by an insensitive and arrogant Government accustomed to overwhelming two-thirds majority in Parliament.
As a result of the unchallenged two-thirds majority of the Barisan Nasional Government in Parliament, Malaysia is heading towards a system of parliamentary authoritarianism – where Parliament is used to justify the authoritarian government of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad rather than to allow the full and free flowering of democratic ideas and institutions.
It is precisely because we are heading towards a system of parliamentary authoritarianism that firemen who had tried to extinguish inflammatory issues by getting them resolved could be detained for inflaming these issues, while the real arsonists who had started these ‘fires’ were allowed to go scot-free.
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