Seeing crackdown, Pakatan battens down hatches
(The Malaysian Insider) – Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders are bracing themselves for a possible repeat of the infamous 1987 Ops Lalang crackdown when election watchdog Bersih 2.0 stages its mass protest in the capital this July 9.
The leaders, many of whom were among those arrested during the crackdown, told a press conference today that they feared the government would again flex its muscles and embark on a spree to detain all leaders participating in the rally.
“As former Ops Lalang detainees, we must ask if they are preparing for an Ops Lalang 2,” said DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, one of the 1987 detainees.
PAS vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar said recent events surrounding the Bersih rally signalled the likelihood that the Najib administration could launch yet another dragnet to silence opposition dissent.
“I am worried. I am worried that (Bersih chairman Datuk) Ambiga Sreenavasan will be arrested under the Internal Security Act… and so will some other Bersih members and opposition politicians.
“It is like in 1987… whereby provocations that involved the prime minister himself (then Umno Youth leader) are the issues at hand but yet, the opposition becomes the scapegoat. Like me, many other representatives became victims at the time,” he told a press conference after attending a PR presidential council meeting in Parliament this afternoon.
Ops Lalang was launched on the morning of October 27, 1987 to clamp down on social activists and opposition politicians. Two dailies were also closed along with two weekly newspapers, and 106 people were arrested under the ISA, including Lim and his son, Guan Eng, who were both held for 18 months.
