THREE decades may have passed but former Special Branch director Abdul Rahim Noor is unrepentant: blood would have been shed if police did not go ahead with Ops Lalang and detain 106 people deemed as a threat to national security.

“We did not want another Memali bloodbath or another May 13 racial incident,” said Rahim of the police crackdown in 1987 which was widely condemned.

“The operation was absolutely necessary.”

The Memali incident occurred in a remote kampung in Memali, Baling in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah on November 19, 1985, two years before Ops Lalang.

A team of 200 policemen laid siege on the kampung to round up an Islamic sect of about 400 followers led by Ibrahim Mahmud, or known then as Ibrahim Libya. The siege resulted in the death of 14 villagers and four policemen.

“I’m still aggrieved over the Memali tragedy. If only the police had acted earlier, the bloodbath could have been prevented.

“That was why in 1987, police had to carry out mass arrests in Ops Lalang.

“’Lalang’ was an appropriate name chosen for the operation, reflecting the national security situation.

“In the orchard, it’s the weeds that we pull out and discard so as save the crops,” he said.

And that was why, he said, police had acted fast to round up the troublemakers to ensure national security was maintained.

Rahim said police also believed that racial riots, like what happened on May 13, 1969, could erupt if they did not take immediate measures.

The May 13 racial riots broke out in the aftermath of the 1969 general election when opposition parties made gains against the ruling Alliance Party coalition. Chinese opposition supporters celebrated by rallying in the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

A Malay backlash resulted in inter-communal violence in which about 6,000 Chinese homes and businesses were burned. Official reports put the number of death from the riots at 196.

“We had to be bold and move in quickly. Public order and domestic security were being threatened,” said Rahim.

Just before Ops Lalang was launched on October 27, the political landscape was heated over the issue of the government sending non-Mandarin-speaking teachers to head Chinese primary schools. 

Chinese educationist groups opposed the move. MCA took up the issue and was backed by DAP while Umno defended the government’s move. 

The Chinese educationist groups Dong Zong (United Chinese School Committee’s Association of Malaysia) organised a rally, to which Umno Youth responded with one of its own.

Rahim said the gathering organised by Umno at the TPCA stadium in Kg Baru just before Ops Lalang was launched was “worrisome”. 

“The situation was bad. Special Branch was there. We had to spy, listen in and scout the area. 

“Yes, we have all the records. So, police took action before the situation worsened,” he said on the subsequent arrests of 106 people under the now defunct Internal Security Act. 

Rahim also said Ops Lalang was not a directive of then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was also home minister. 

“People have been saying that Dr Mahathir used Ops Lalang for his political gains. 

“That is not true at all. It was the police who told Dr Mahathir that Ops Lalang had to be carried out to prevent something bad from happening to the country.

“The list of detainees did not come from Dr Mahathir as matters of national security are under police jurisdiction, although he was home minister at the time,” Rahim said. 

The then inspector-general of police, Hanif Omar, in an earlier interview, also said Dr Mahathir did not agree with Ops Lalang and had wanted the ISA to be repealed.

Hanif said he and Rahim met Dr Mahathir and convinced him otherwise. 

“Tun Dr Mahathir did not agree. Many people blamed him, and I’ve said two or three times in interviews that it was not him that directed (the operations),” Hanif had said in a forum in Kuala Lumpur.

“I answer to him, but I don’t bow to him (home minister). I as a policeman bow to the law. This is be understood, this is our system.

“So I told Tun Dr Mahathir, ‘Datuk Seri, I apologise but this is not Datuk Seri’s role (in directing the operations). This is my role, my authority and my duty.” – October 23, 2017.