MP SPEAKS | Ops Lalang, 34 years on

MP SPEAKS | This day, 34 years ago on Oct 27, 1987, will forever be etched in my mind and the minds of many family members as D-Day of Operasi Lalang, a ‘weeding’ operation conducted by the then BN government to weed out voices of dissent labelling them as a “threat to national security”.

My father, P Patto together with leaders like Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, V David, Kerk Kim Hock, Sim Tong Hin, Hu Sepang, Mahfuz Omar, Yunus Ali, Mohammad Sabu, Khalid Samad, Anthony Rogers, Meenakshi Raman, Chee Heng Leng, Theresa Lim and even Tajuddin Abdul Rahman belonged to the Ops Lalang alumni and what painful memories it brings me today.

The list ranged from MPs and state assemblypersons, lecturers, engineers, educationists, environmentalists, women’s rights leaders, religious leaders, rubber tappers, a vegetable seller, a market hawker, chairperson of a factory union, businesspersons and human rights defenders.

They were all scooped in the biggest haul by the Malaysian authorities in October 1987 - a total of more than 106 men and women.

Their charges?...