Time for an apology, Dr Mahathir
29 years after Operation Lalang, the time is now ripe for Dr Mahathir Mohamad to apologise to both the victims and the nation
Kua Kia Soong, Free Malaysia Today
This 29th anniversary of the launch of Operation Lalang is perhaps the best opportunity for Dr Mahathir Mohamad – if he has indeed become a reformed democrat – to apologise to the detainees and to the nation for that dastardly action in 1987 and the subsequent assault on the Malaysian Judiciary.
On Oct 27, 1987, Mahathir’s government began arresting and detaining without trial a very large number of people – Members of Parliament, politicians, unionists, NGO activists, religious leaders and educationists, including this writer. The official figure was 106 people detained.
While the justification given was that this was necessary to defuse the racial tension at the time, Bapa Malaysia, the Tunku put it bluntly: “Umno was facing a break-up. The Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s hold on the party appeared critical when election rigging was alleged to have given him a very narrow victory against Tengku Razaleigh.
“The case alleging irregularities brought by Umno members was pending in court. If the judgment went against him he would have no choice but to step down. So he had to find a way out of his predicament. A national crisis had to be created to bring Umno together as a united force to fight a common enemy – and the imaginary enemy in this case was the Chinese community… Overnight, Malaysia has become a Police State….”
In other words, Operation Lalang was a deliberate and cynical move by Mahathir to stay in office. This is a far cry from his recent boast about “never ever been asked to go… unlike the present Prime Minister!”
His subsequent action in sacking the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas and suspending three Supreme Court judges in order to pre-empt the legal challenge to his position in Umno was unprecedented in the history of Commonwealth countries. The Tribunal’s Report recommending the sacking of Salleh was described by world renowned Geoffrey Robertson QC as “among the most despicable documents in modern legal history….”
