PROPERTY
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The dangerous 1980s witnessed ferocious attacks by the executive branch of government on parliament, and more spectacularly, an ultimately successful brutal and frontal assault on the judiciary.
No institution was spared, from the rulers themselves, to the Lord President of the Supreme Court.
Parliament is supposed to be the supreme branch and the executive the weakest branch among the three separate tiers of government in our Federal Constitution. And yet, so ruthless was their 'take no prisoners' approach, that the whole country was turned into a police state and forced to submit to the supremacy, nay, the dictatorship of the executive, in the person of the prime minister.
Corruption raged uncontrolled from massive scandals such as the twin RM4.5 billion BMF-Bank Bumiputra scandals and the RM1.5 billion MCA-controlled deposit-taking cooperatives scandals.
The incipient signs of crony capitalism and mixing business with politics took off with the UEM North-South Highway contract awarded to an Umno trust company whose trustees included none other than the prime minister and the then finance minister.
Power struggle in Umno
Despite how successful prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in running the country as he deemed fit, he could not control and dictate his own party in the same manner.
The internal party challenge in 1987 posed by his former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam who then combined with finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, was the fiercest and most threatening in Mahathir's political career. Though he managed to survive by 43 votes in retaining the presidency of his party, he wasted no time in entrenching his rule, removing dissenters and brooking no opposition.
In the process, he set off in motion a train of tumultuous events, culminating in Operasi Lalang and the emasculation of the judiciary.
Despite Umno's dominance in the 1986 general election, the internal power struggle continued unabated. The slim victory for Mahathir in the party elections, only intensified the split within Umno.
With such intense jockeying for power, racial extremism reigned supreme.
Blood-curdling speeches from Umno leaders were common, with former Umno Youth chief and present Defence Minister Najib Abdul Razak calling for the Malay keris to be bathed in Chinese blood during a meeting that he presided.
This, coming from the person touted to be the future second-in-command to premier-in-waiting Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who himself has often warned against violence and extremism.
In the light of threats from within the party as well as public outrage over corruption scandals, the prime minister irresponsibly allowed racial aggression to rear its ugly head.
He did not stop his minister Sanusi Junid from organising a one million Malays rally in Kuala Lumpur under the Umno banner, to "reaffirm their rights", despite knowing very well that a full-scale racial riot similar to May 13,1969 could result from the event.
The mad rampage of a deranged soldier who shot dead two Malay Malaysians on Chow Kit Road finally allowed Mahathir the excuse to launch Operasi Lalang on Oct 27, 1987.
It resulted in the detention of 106 opposition leaders, university lecturers, church workers, writers, religious preachers, social activists, educationists, NGO and peace activists. Unsurprisingly the two main proponents of such racial aggression, MCA and Umno members, were not detained.
Many of those detained had no interest in politics at all but were taken in a mindless sweep to prevent some grand 'communist' threat or other which was used to justify the detentions and mask the real purpose of reinforcing Mahathir's position.
Amongst the detainees were Dr Chandra Muzaffar, Dr Chee Heng Leng, Dr Mohamed Nasir, the late Lim Fong Seng, Sim Mow Yu, Brother Anthony Rodgers, V Arioka Dass and almost the entire leadership of the DAP. None of those detained were ever involved in violence or plotted violence.
ISA solely for communists
Our beloved first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj had this to say about Operasi Lalang:
"The ISA introduced in 1960 was designed to and meant to be used solely against the communists...my cabinet colleagues and I gave solemn promise to the parliament and the nation that the immense powers given to the government under the ISA would never be used to stifle legitimate opposition and silence lawful dissent..." (Tunku's affidavit at the habeas corpus hearing of Chandra in 1987)
"It's a police state when you can go and arrest people at will without giving any reason other than they think they are a security risk...We (Malays and Chinese) all share the same view. We should not listen to him (Dr Mahathir). It's not a question of Chinese against the government but his own party, Umno who [is] against him." (Tunku's comment in The Times of London, Nov 9, 1987)
And Hussein Onn, Malaysia's third prime minister, had this to say in his affidavit at the 1987 habeas corpus hearing of Chandra:
"The ISA is a measure aimed at preventing the resurgence of the earlier communist threat to the nation...during my term of office as prime minister, I made every effort to ensure that the pledges of my predecessors, that the powers under the ISA would not be misused to curb lawful political opposition, and that democratic citizen activity were respected."
These remarks by former prime ministers who promulgated the ISA indicate how far this harsh law has strayed from its original purpose.
Clearly what was originally intended to deal with the armed communist insurgency has conveniently evolved to an effective weapon by the prime minister to remove political opposition to and stifle legitimate dissent.
With the signing of the peace agreement with the Communist Party of Malaya, there is no more justification for the continued existence of the ISA.
Unfortunately, national security risk is now interpreted as a risk to the position of the prime minister.
The Mahathir government insists that preventive laws like the ISA are crucial to avert violence and armed threats such as the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre. This is the new raison d'etat of the ISA preventive custody to secure the nation from armed attacks.
Hollow reason of state
However, this raison d'etat sound hollow when the ISA could not prevent nor foresee the Al-Ma'unah attacks on July 2000 in Grik, Perak which resulted in the murder and torture of two security personnel.
Nor did the ISA foresee the violence 22 years earlier, on Oct 16, 1980 when the police shot dead eight members out of 20 sword-wielding Muslims led by a Cambodian refugee who claimed to be the mahdi, sort of a messiah. They had stormed a police station in Batu Pahat, Johor, injuring 14 police personnel and nine civilians.
All these were unprovoked attacks against the state.
And there was the Memali incident on Nov 19, 1985 where the police had the village surrounded. In a shootout between police and villagers in Memali, Kedah, four police personnel and 14 villagers were killed.
The villagers were led by Ibrahim Mahmood, who was nicknamed 'Ibrahim Libya' because he did his studies there. He died in the shootout. The ISA did not play any role here.
All these incidents show that the ISA and preventive custody have failed the government in its primary duty to stop singular, unprovoked, violent attacks. Incidents that violate basic human rights norms such as torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees are common.
Nothing exemplifies the evil of ISA as much as when prominent personalities such as former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim can be tortured and beaten up by the Inspector-General of Police himself whilst under ISA detention.
There is no rationale for the ISA's continued existence after 42 years. There exists however, the need to end the role of the ISA in Malaysian life and the stain on our national conscience. Forty-two years of torture must stop!
LIM GUAN ENG is a DAP leader and former member of parliament who was detained under the ISA during Operasi Lalang. This edited article was from a speech originally entitled "ISA and preventive custody have failed in its primary duty to stop singular attacks of unprovoked violence", delivered at the Suaram public forum, "42 years of torture", on Aug 1, 2002.