Admit we met, Dr M tells Ops Lalang detainees

Dr Mahathir now maintains Ops Lalang was a police initiative. — file pic

SHAH ALAM, Feb 14 — Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today said the opposition leaders whom he had met over 20 years ago, before they were arrested under Ops Lalang in 1987, should tell the truth and admit that they had met him.

“Well it happened over 20 years ago. I remember distinctly meeting them, I can’t remember the faces of those people. I certainly remember that Karpal (Singh) was not one of them and I think (Lim) Kit Siang is one of them,” he told reporters after launching the Palestinian Cultural Organisation Malaysia (PCOM) here.

He said this when responding to a reporter’s question on whether he would take up the challenge thrown by DAP chairman Karpal Singh to name the opposition members whom he met prior to Ops Lalang.

Dr Mahathir said if the opposition leaders were truthful and not prone to telling lies, he thought that they should admit that he met them prior to the operation.

He said the opposition leaders had appealed to him to prevent their arrest under the Internal Security Act (ISA) then and that it was the reason he had met them, to ensure them that they would not be arrested.

Dr Mahathir said: “It is embarrassing for me after ensuring them that they would not be arrested but they were arrested by the police and of course I had to sign the detention order.”

Touching on news reports that his former deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had business operations based in the United States, Dr Mahathir said: “That we know but to expose it we must have the evidence.”

“He is rich, not poor, and that is why he can go here and there and tell nonsensical stories to tarnish my name.”

“Maybe after this I will receive a lawyer’s letter from Anwar threatening to sue me to keep my mouth shut,” Dr Mahathir said.

Asked whether Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud should step down before or after the state election, Dr Mahathir said: “It’s up to the people of Sarawak to decide, I think they know best whether he should step down or not.”

However, Dr Mahathir said if Taib were to step down, there should be somebody to replace him, not like former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak who stepped down without a good succession plan.

Meanwhile, Bayan Baru MP Datuk Seri Zahrain Mohd Hashim claimed the challenge issued by Karpal to Dr Mahathir was just an attempt to divert the people’s attention from the larger issues.

Writing in his blog, zahrainmp.blogspot.com, he said this was because Karpal Singh was now faced with a credibility problem both as a lawyer and politician.

He claimed that Karpal Singh had miscalculated in trying to capitalise on Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial and the Coroner’s inquest into the death of political aide Teoh Benh Hock and was resorting to such tricks (challenging Dr Mahathir) to divert attention away from himself (Karpal). — Bernama