Ex-ISA detainee dares Pakatan to defend Dr M over Ops Lalang

(MMO) – Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong today challenged Pakatan Harapan leaders to state their position on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s continued denial that he was responsible for Ops Lalang.

Kua’s challenge follows news that the former prime minister will meet with around 30 people who were previously detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The 1987 Ops Lalang was credited with giving the ISA the reputation of being a “white terror”, after the security law was used to detain 119 people including DAP’s Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, and the late Karpal Singh.

The father-and-son duo and their DAP are now allies with Dr Mahathir and his Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).

“If there is any member of Pakatan Harapan who agrees with Dr Mahathir, the home minister and prime minister in 1987, that he was not responsible for Operation Lalang, let him or her step forward…” Kua, who was also detained then, said in a statement.

He also demanded that Dr Mahathir apologise unreservedly for the security crackdown that led to the suspension of four newspapers and the eventual demise of Watan, as well as the alleged torture of the detainees then.

Dr Mahathir continues to deny any responsibility over Ops Lalang, instead blaming the police for the mass detentions.

“This attempt at whitewashing his record seems all the more urgent since he has joined the Opposition,” Kua noted today.

According to media reports, Dr Mahathir will meet 30 or so former ISA detainees in Penang later this month.

Ops Lalang and the use of the ISA then had prompted Malaysia’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, to remark that the country was undeniably “on the road to dictatorship”.

The ISA was repealed in 2012 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.