Launched on Oct 27, 1987 while Mahathir was the prime minister, Ops Lalang saw 119 civil society activists, intellectuals and opposition politicians detained without trial under the now-repealed Internal Security Act (ISA).
Among them were Kasthuri’s father, P Patto, a DAP strongman in the 1970s and ’80s who served as MP for Menglembu in Ipoh and was the assemblyman for Bagan before he died in 1995.
“Please, Tun. You, of all people, have no moral authority to label the prime minister a dictator,” said Kasthuri in a post on Twitter today.
“I am a child of your 1987 Operasi Lalang which you bear full responsibility as the home minister and prime minister. I was eight and my sister was six.
“You took my father, P Patto, away, and many other fathers and mothers were (taken) from their families because they dissented against you.
“You detained them for months, years and decades using the draconian ISA, while never allowing them to be tried in court. It was an iron-fisted rule.”
Patto, the then Gopeng assemblyman, was placed in solitary confinement at the Kamunting detention camp for 60 days.
Among the other notable figures detained during Ops Lalang were politicians Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Mahfuz Omar, Mohamad Sabu, Khalid Samad and Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, social activists Chandra Muzaffar and Meenakshi Raman, and unionist V David.
Kasthuri was responding to Mahathir’s claim yesterday that the government was a “dictatorship” after a “Malay Proclamation” event featuring the former prime minister was cancelled twice.
Asked if he knew who directed the venues to cancel the event, Mahathir said he had no proof, but was convinced Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was behind it because “nothing like this can be done without his consent or directive”.
He criticised the government for allegedly not allowing the event to proceed, saying the government “doesn’t allow the people to voice their opinions or criticise it”.
In her Twitter post, Kasthuri noted that during Ops Lalang, the government targeted the press and curbed freedom of speech, assembly and expression.
Recalling stories of people fearing being jailed for merely having a copy of DAP newsletter The Rocket tucked under their arm, she also said that Mahathir’s use of the Special Branch services to target politicians, their families and friends remains “vivid in my mind”.
A two-term MP, Kasthuri made her parliamentary debut in 2013 when she won the Batu Kawan seat with a majority of 25,962 votes. She went on to retain the seat with a bigger majority of 33,553 votes in the 2018 general election, before choosing not to contest the last election.