A civil rights advocacy group has called for the setting up of two truth commissions to inquire into two episodes which led to the 'dark years' of the late 80s.

The two incidents are the crackdown on political leaders and social activists during the Operasi Lalang in 1987 and the sacking of then lord president Salleh Abas in 1988.

"These two incidents have not only undermined key democratic institutions of the judiciary, media, political parties and civil society, but they also instilled fear and distrust among the citizenry, with impacts felt until today.

"It is time now for the nation to seek transitional justice," said Civil Rights Committee chairperson Ser Choon Ing ( right ) in a statement today, which was also made in response to a recent Bar Council's call to re-investigate the 1988 judiciary crisis.

The committee is attached to the influential Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Ser, a lawyer by training, said he believed the time has come for the nation to revisit the dark years in Malaysian democracy to enable the nation to "mature as a country and a people".

"We are now at the crossroad on the way to democratisation, simply because the shadow of authoritarianism has refused to fade away. Re-examine and correct historical injustices is the first step towards a breakaway with our dark past and the beginning of a bright future," he asserted.

PM's urgent task

He said Malaysians of all generations, including victims and their families of these power abuses, have every right to know the truth in the two crises and how state power has been abused, as well as the rule of law was compromised to serve the powers-that-be.

"We need to diagnose the ills so that we may cure, prevent and heal," he added.

Ser pointed out transitional justice is attained in democratising societies when suppressed individuals and groups may seek redress for the sufferings they experienced under authoritarian institutions via fact-finding, compensations and correcting the wrongs in the past.

He argued the setting up of the two truth commissions is therefore an urgent task for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is on an warpath with his predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

"If Abdullah can demonstrate the moral courage to have a clear break with Mahathir's suppressive mechanism, his battle with the former strongman will no longer be merely one of personalities, but rather with the historical significance of one that ends authoritarianism."