While former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is playing "white knight" trying to "oust" unpopular Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, it is the good doctor who is the bigger baddie, a former Internal Security Act detainee says.

Irene Xavier, one of the 106 people nabbed in Ops Lalang , says this is because Najib is only piggybacking on the damage Mahathir had already dealt to the country and its system of governance.