Ops Lalang
Ops Lalang was a police operation beginning on 27 October 1987 in which more than a hundred people were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act 1960 and the publishing permits of four newspapers were withdrawn.
what happened
Ops Lalang began on 27 October 1987, when police started making arrests under the Internal Security Act 1960. Over the following weeks more than a hundred people were detained. They were not drawn from a single party or community: opposition MPs from the DAP and PAS, leaders of the Chinese-education movement, trade unionists, academics, lawyers, church workers, Islamic preachers and NGO activists were all picked up. The police gave the purpose of the operation as forestalling racial rioting. Sources differ on the exact total, giving figures between 106 and 119.
The ISA made this possible without any charge or trial. Section 73 allowed the police to hold a person for up to 60 days without warrant and without access to a lawyer. Section 8 then allowed the Home Minister to issue a detention order of up to two years, renewable. Most of those arrested were released within the first 60 days; a smaller group, variously reported as 46 or 49 people, was moved to the Kamunting camp in Taiping on two-year orders. Kua Kia Soong, then an opposition MP, was held for 445 days. Karpal Singh won an order for his release on a habeas corpus application in March 1988; police re-arrested him hours later, and he was held until January 1989.
Four newspapers lost their publishing permits at the same time: The Star, The Sunday Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan, covering the English, Chinese and Malay language markets. The reason given at the time was that the papers had published material prejudicial to national security; an editor of The Star said that was what the Home Ministry told the paper. Permits were then, as now, issued under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984. The provision that makes the Home Minister's decision on a permit final came afterwards, not before: it was inserted by an amendment that took effect on 8 January 1988. All four titles resumed publishing in 1988, five to six months later.
The events sat inside a crowded political moment. Weeks earlier there had been a public dispute over the posting of senior assistants without Mandarin qualifications to Chinese-medium primary schools, with a protest gathering at the Thean Hou Temple on 11 October and an UMNO Youth counter-rally on 17 October. Earlier that year UMNO had held a leadership election decided by 43 votes, and the result was in litigation; on 4 February 1988 the High Court held UMNO to be an unlawful society. In 1988 the Lord President was removed and five Supreme Court judges suspended. Parliament then added section 8B to the ISA, shutting the courts out of reviewing ministerial ISA decisions except on procedural compliance.
Why it happened is where accounts part company, and readers should weigh the claims rather than expect this page to settle them. The Government made its case publicly on 28 October 1987: Mahathir Mohamad told Parliament the situation had become very tense, that the police assessed the country had reached a very dangerous level, and that preventive action was needed to avoid another racial riot; the Inspector-General of Police said officials had every reason to believe those arrested were threats to national security. The Government restated its case in a 1988 White Paper, whose text is not available online, so its fuller written argument cannot be set out here beside its critics' at the same length. Tunku Abdul Rahman said the driver was the UMNO contest, not race. Aliran and Kua Kia Soong argue the operation reflected the pressure the administration was under. Human Rights Watch links the later section 8B amendment to the courts having shown willingness to review detentions, and the law professor Andrew Harding has described 1988 as a trade of judicial independence for short-term advantage. Mahathir Mohamad said in 2014 that he accepted Cabinet responsibility and that the aim was stability and peace. The ISA itself was repealed in 2012, though the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 retains a narrower power to detain without trial.
the working
What the sources say
established
The operation began on 27 October 1987, when the Royal Malaysia Police started arresting people under the Internal Security Act 1960 (ISA).
established
The police gave the stated purpose of the operation as forestalling an outbreak of racial rioting.
established
The Government set out its reasons publicly on the day the arrests were reported. In a special address to Parliament on 28 October 1987, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who also held the Home Affairs portfolio, said: "The situation has become very tense. Preventive action must be taken now to save the country from disastrous riots." He said "the opinion of the police is that we have reached a very dangerous level" and that he agreed with them, referred to the deaths in the May 13 1969 disturbances, and said that "the nation cannot afford another racial riot". In the same address he attributed the emphasis on racial issues to the opposition Democratic Action Party. He announced a nationwide ban on rallies that also applied to UMNO's own meeting scheduled for that Sunday.
established
The Inspector-General of Police, Haniff Omar, told a news conference that officials had "every reason to believe" those arrested were threats to national security, adding: "If we didn't arrest them now it may be too late." He said the arrests took place over a 48-hour period in Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh.
established
Those detained came from across public life and were not confined to one party or community: opposition politicians and MPs, Chinese-education movement leaders, trade unionists, academics, lawyers, church workers, Islamic preachers and NGO activists.
established
Named detainees included DAP figures Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Lim Guan Eng and P Patto; PAS figures Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad and Mahfuz Omar; unionist V David; and academic Chandra Muzaffar.
established
Detainees held beyond the initial police period were sent to the Kamunting detention camp in Taiping, Perak.
established
The ISA allowed police to detain a person for up to 60 days without warrant, trial or access to counsel on suspicion of acting in a manner prejudicial to the security of Malaysia (section 73), after which the Home Minister could issue a detention order of up to two years, renewable (section 8).
established
Most of those arrested were released within the initial 60-day police detention period; a smaller group was then served with two-year detention orders and moved to Kamunting.
established
Kua Kia Soong, then an opposition MP and later a Suaram adviser, was detained for 445 days, and has written a book-length account of the operation.
adjudicated
Karpal Singh's detention was challenged by a habeas corpus application, and a court ordered his release in March 1988; he was re-arrested by police hours later and remained in detention until January 1989.
established
The publishing permits of four titles were withdrawn: the English-language dailies The Star and its Sunday edition The Sunday Star, the Chinese-language daily Sin Chew Jit Poh, and the Malay-language weekly Watan.
established
A Dewan Rakyat debate records the withdrawal of the permits for The Star, Watan and Sin Chew Jit Poh on 28 October 1987, and reporting records those permits being restored on 22 March 1988. The corresponding dates for the fourth title, The Sunday Star, and the statutory provision relied on in each notice, have not been established.
established
The withdrawn permits were restored and the titles resumed publishing in 1988, roughly five to six months after the closures.
established
The ground the Government gave at the time for the suspensions was that the titles had published material prejudicial to national security. An editor of The Star said the paper was told by the Home Ministry that its publishing licence had been revoked for "publishing material prejudicial to national security", and the same reason was given for Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan.
established
Newspaper permits at the time were issued under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 (Act 301).
established
The provision that makes the Minister's decision on a licence or permit final — section 13A, "Minister's decision final" — was not in force at the time of the October 1987 suspensions. It was inserted by the Printing Presses and Publications (Amendment) Act 1987 (Act A684), which came into force on 8 January 1988. The ouster provision therefore followed the 1987 suspensions rather than governing them.
established
The Printing Presses and Publications (Amendment) Act 2012 (Act A1436), in force 15 July 2012, removed the wording barring the courts from calling the Minister's decision into question "on any ground whatsoever". Section 13A itself was not repealed: the current reprint still provides that a decision to refuse, revoke or suspend a licence or permit "shall be final", and the Minister's "absolute discretion" survives in section 7, over publications deemed undesirable.
established
In the weeks before the operation there was a public dispute over the Education Ministry's posting of senior assistants without Mandarin-language qualifications to national-type Chinese primary schools; Chinese education bodies and Chinese-based parties held a protest gathering at the Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur on 11 October 1987, and UMNO Youth held a counter-rally in Kuala Lumpur on 17 October 1987.
adjudicated
UMNO had held a contested leadership election in April 1987 in which the incumbent president, Mahathir Mohamad, was returned by a margin of 43 votes over the challenger, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah; the result was then litigated, and on 4 February 1988 the High Court held that UMNO was an unlawful society because unregistered branches had taken part.
established
In 1988 the Lord President, Salleh Abas, was removed and five Supreme Court judges were suspended, two of whom were also removed.
established
Parliament subsequently inserted section 8B into the ISA, providing that no court may review any act done or decision made by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or the Minister in the exercise of their discretionary power under the Act, save on questions of compliance with the Act's procedural requirements.
established
The ISA was repealed in 2012 and replaced in part by the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (SOSMA), which cut the initial police detention period from the ISA's 60 days to 28 days but retains a power to detain without trial. The repeal was effected by section 32 of SOSMA itself, which provides that "the Internal Security Act 1960 [Act 82] is repealed"; SOSMA came into operation on 31 July 2012.
Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 · Human Rights Watch · Aliran
established
In February 2014 Mahathir Mohamad, then no longer in office, said of Ops Lalang: "Even if the decision was made by somebody else, it is in the Cabinet and I accept responsibility," and said the aim "was to ensure stability and peace in this country."
where accounts differ
The parts nobody agrees on
uncertain
The total number of people arrested is reported differently across sources. Figures of 106, 107 and 119 all appear; Aliran describes 106 as the official tally and notes the true total "is said to be higher", while Kua Kia Soong, a detainee, uses 119.
uncertain
The number served with two-year detention orders is also reported differently: Kua Kia Soong gives 46 transferred to Kamunting, while other accounts give 49 formally detained after the 60-day period.
contested
A contemporaneous official figure does exist, and it is lower than the secondary accounts on both counts. A 1989 Dewan Rakyat record states that 106 people were arrested in Operasi Lalang and that 40 were detained after further police investigation. It is the Government's own account, given to Parliament, and it is set alongside the figures above rather than in place of them: the accounts do not agree on what stage of the operation each number describes, and no source reconciles them.
contested
Why the operation was launched is disputed. The Government's contemporaneous position, given by Mahathir Mohamad to Parliament on 28 October 1987 and by the Inspector-General of Police the same day, was that racial tension had reached a level at which rioting was a real risk, that the police so advised, and that those responsible had to be detained before it was "too late". The Government later restated its case in a White Paper on national security tabled in Parliament in 1988.
United Press International · Malay Mail · Commonwealth Oral History Project
contested
Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister, said the operation was driven by the UMNO leadership contest rather than by racial danger, and characterised the framing of the Chinese community as a threat as the creation of "an imaginary enemy".
contested
Kua Kia Soong and Aliran argue the operation was a response to the pressure the then administration was under, not to an imminent riot; Aliran refers to "the desperation of the then Mahathir administration".
contested
Whether the 1987 detentions and the 1988 judicial events form one connected sequence is a matter of interpretation. Human Rights Watch states that section 8B was introduced after courts showed willingness to review ISA detentions; the law professor Andrew Harding has characterised the 1988 events as sacrificing judicial independence for transitory advantage.
uncertain
The Government's fuller written case cannot be set out here at the length its critics' arguments are. It was made in a 1988 White Paper on national security whose full text searches have not located online, and whose tabling date is itself reported inconsistently — sources give both 23 and 28 March 1988. What this page carries instead is the Government's contemporaneous public statements of 28 October 1987. The White Paper is otherwise known only through descriptions in later accounts, most written by people who opposed the operation, and that gap is left visible rather than filled by paraphrase.
searched: Parliament of Malaysia Hansard repository, historical press archives
uncertain
No public record identifies which Ops Lalang detainees, beyond those already named on this page, received compensation, or on what legal basis. Later reporting records former detainees calling for compensation; it does not establish a comprehensive record of payments.
searched: Malaysian court judgment portals, parliamentary records, press archives
contested
Whether an apology or formal accounting is owed remains disputed. Mahathir has accepted Cabinet-level responsibility while defending the objective; Kua Kia Soong has said a personal apology, an inquiry into alleged mistreatment in detention, and abolition of remaining detention-without-trial powers are still outstanding.
still being researched
- The precise judgment in Karpal Singh's habeas corpus application, reported as *Karpal Singh v Menteri Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri* [1988] 1 MLJ 468, and any subsequent appellate decision, have not been read against a law report. The March 1988 release, the re-arrest and the January 1989 release above rest on secondary accounts. A later search located only a coursework-site copy of the report, which is not an authoritative text and was rejected.
- The permit dates for The Sunday Star, and the section of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 relied on in each of the four withdrawal notices. The wording of the permit provisions *as they stood in October 1987* has still not been read against a pre-1988 reprint — only the post-2012 consolidated text was available — so no statement about the Minister's discretion at the time can rest on it.