Ops Lalang Forum – Nov 6 ’06, Najib Tun Razak’s keris wielding past

I attended a forum on Ops Lalang last night, and got a taste for pieces of history I’m still quite ignorant of.

The speakers were Dr. Kua Kia Soong, Sonia Randhawa, Sivarasa Rasiah and Lim Guan Eng.

Dr. Kua spoke first, and introduced an observation all speakers later concurred with – the correlation of an ISA arrest wave with an internal struggle within Umno. There were a number of examples given, the clearest being the Mahathir – Tengku Razaleigh challenge in ’87 and the Mahathir – Anwar challenge around ’98. This pattern had never been highlighted to me before.

Ms. Randhawa spoke about some of the legacies of Ops Lalang, including the emasculation of the media, and pointed out that many parts of our history are completely unknown by young chiku’s like me and that questions regarding many incidents of our past remain unanswered (eg, the Private/Corporal Adam incident).

Mr. Sivarasa shared some experiences regarding having a house guest arrested, and efforts to get the Ops Lalang detainees out, especially on the legal front.

Lim Guan Eng was good deal more sedate than usual it seems, which becomes him. He expounded calmly and not without eloquence on the political motivations (rather than ‘national security’ concerns) behind Ops Lalang, pointing out that after all, he himself was probably a greater threat to national security now than he was then. He also insinuated that YAB Dtk Abdul Ghani Othman qualified to be arrested under the ISA :P :)

Mention was made of detainees being held without trial for 15-20 years. FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS.

All 3 men also talked a lot about the climate of the time, providing context and suggesting that ‘tensions’ were in fact manipulated into being – there being secretly organised mass responses to the Chinese educationist movement (btw, Anwar Ibrahim was the Education Minister when the controversial appointments of non-Chinese ed administrators to the Chinese schools), ‘deviant’ Islamists, non-Muslim religious activists, etc.

So much history. So many things I’d like to know better…

One of the most vivid pictures, painted by Mr. Sivarasa I *think*, was of a young Najib Tun Razak who was a leader at a mass Umno gathering speculated to be convened with the specific, secret intention of stroking the tensions that would justify use of the ISA. While inciting the crowds, he (imitated by his cousin some years later) is said to have been wielding a keris while shouting ‘We will bathe this keris in Chinese blood!’.

I just came across this in Wikipedia (Try googling ‘najib’ :)

In 1987, as UMNO Youth Chief, Najib vociferously defended special Malay priveleges in a fiery speech featuring the Malay Keris (dagger) shortly before the government launched a crackdown on extremist elements termed Operation Lalang. At the same rally, banners were hoisted carrying phrases such as “revoke the citizenship of those who opposed the Malay rulers”, “May 13 has begun” (referring to the May 13 racial riots in 1969), and “soak it (the keris) with Chinese blood”.

Some say he will lead us one day :|