KUALA LUMPUR, 10 FEBRUARY, 2011: Former inspector-general of police Mohammed Hanif Omar has come into the defense of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, denying that the former premier had ordered the mass detention of political dissidents under Ops Lalang in 1987, reported Malaysiakini.
Hanif, who was the IGP from 1974 to 1994, said that Mahathir was opposed to the arrests.
"You can't blame him. He is right. As a matter of fact, it was entirely the police decision. It was not his (Mahathir's) decision. Mahathir was actually opposed to it... He was against Ops Lalang," said Hanif in a brief telephone conversation with Malaysiakini.
He added that the police were entirely responsible for the operation.
"It was not (Mahathir's) role nor was it his power. We were the ones responsible for it," he added.
In the 1987 crackdown on Oct 27, 106 people – mostly opposition and a handful of MCA and Umno politicians – were arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) while the publishing permits for The Star and Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan were revoked.
In a recently released book, Doctor M: Operation Malaysia – Conversations with Mahathir Mohamad by American journalist Tom Plate, Mahathir said that the arrests were the decision of the police, and that there was nothing he could do to stop it.
In the book, Mahathir said:
"Well, I would have handled it differently, except that the police wanted to do these things because they say it is necessary."
However, Hanif added that it was Mahathir's responsibility as the home minister to sign the detention orders once the first 60-day detention provided for under the ISA expired.
"It is up to him to decide from then on," said Hanif.
Mahathir was the home minister from 1986 to 1999.
Under the ISA, the police may detain a person for up to 60 days without trial. Beyond that, one may be further detained for a period of two years – and this can be extended indefinitely – on orders from the home minister.
While most of the detainees in the Ops Lalang were released either conditionally or unconditionally, 40 were issued two-year detention orders, including then DAP secretary-general Lim Kit Siang and party deputy chairman Karpal Singh.
Hanif also denied that the crackdown was politically motivated or that the police were driven by political pressure.
"The police force do not go by political persuasion," he said.
He also recalled that he met with Mahathir before the crackdown together with the then Special Branch director Abdul Rahim Noor to brief Mahathir on the growing political tensions.
The government had explained that the second largest ISA swoop since the May 13 racial riots were 'necessary' to contain rising 'racial tensions' from the protests over the appointment of non-Chinese educated principals to Chinese vernacular schools.
In response, Umno held a counter protest, where then Youth chief Najib Razak led a huge rally in Kampung Baru days prior to the arrests.
"(Mahathir) opposed this (the ISA arrests). But the police will do what we have to do," said Hanif.
"(The police force) were independent, at least during my time."
However, Hanif never mentioned in the report whether it is true that Mahathir had met with members of the Opposition prior to their arrests to give assurance that they would not be arrested.
In the book, Mahathir said:
"I actually met all of the opposition members (beforehand) and assured them that they would not be arrested. And you know what the police did? They arrested them. My credibility is gone."
Lim Kit Siang yesterday refuted Mahathir’s claim and accused the former premier of trying to "rewrite history".
“Mahathir is not only suffering from selective memory and faulty memory but is spinning untruths about his misdeeds in his 22 years as Prime Minister,” said Lim in a media statement.
“I never met Mahathir and he never gave me any assurance that I would not be arrested before the launch of Operation Lalang on Oct 27, 1987, although a day earlier I had spoken in Parliament in the 1988 budget debate warning of escalation of racial tensions and calling on all political parties to agree to a one-year moratorium where no racial, language, cultural or religious issues will be created or raised for every Malaysian to concentrate on the national priority of achieving economic recovery and growth,” he added.
Lim wants Mahathir to name the Opposition leaders he had met and given assurance that they would not be arrested but subsequently overruled by the police in the Operation Lalang crackdown.
He also demanded Mahathir to apologize to the nation for masterminding Ops Lalang which is “the darkest chapter of human rights in Malaysia” which paved the way for “a wholesale clampdown and subversion of the media, the judiciary and organs of state”.
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