Dr M accepts blame for Ops Lalang

PETALING JAYA: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) has accepted the blame for the use of the Internal Security Act (ISA) to detain 106 people during Ops Lalang.

The former premier, in a blog post on Wednesday (Nov 1), reiterated his stance that it was the police who insisted on keeping the law, but added that he took responsibility for the arrests.

However, he stopped short of apologising for the incident.

“I accept the blame even though the detention was not my decision,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also expressed his regret that some of the detainees had been subject to torture.

“I am now told that detainees were tortured. I regret that the detainees in Ops Lalang were tortured.

“This is against the law,” he said.

Ops Lalang began after 19 people were arrested on Oct 27, 1987.

By late November, a total of 106 people, including opposition and Barisan Nasional politicians, academics and leaders of non-government organisations, were nabbed under the ISA while three newspapers were shut down.

Dr Mahathir, who was also the home minister at the time, had signed the detention orders.

However, he has firmly maintained that he was not supportive of the use of the ISA.

“The first thing I did when I became prime minister was to order the release of 21 political prisoners under Internal Security Act.

“I did that because I did not like detention without trial ever since Aziz Ishak was detained,” he said, referring to the detention of politician and journalist Abdul Aziz Ishak in 1965.

Abdul Aziz had been detained until 1966, after being accused of collaborating with Indonesian agents to form a government-in-exile during the Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation.

“I had hoped that during my tenure as Prime Minister I would not have to detain anyone,” Dr Mahathir added.