The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Twenty-five years later, camaraderie in adversity Posted: 27 Oct 2012 12:55 AM PDT OCT 27 — The collective adversity suffered by the DAP, PAS and civil society leaders in 1987 ironically built the steely resolve for change and the deep camaraderie to see it through. This day 25 years ago, October 27, 1987, was one of the darkest days in Malaysian history when 106 politicians and social activists were arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) in Operation Lalang. Printing permits for three newspapers, namely The Star, Sinchew and Watan, were withdrawn. The security crackdown that shocked the nation and marked the end of the boisterous, often mistaken as democratic, first phase of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's leadership that began in 1981. Dr Mahathir succeeded Tun Hussein Oon with a weak base in Umno and virtually no one to trust. By pitting Musa Hitam against Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in Umno's deputy presidential elections of 1981 and 1984, Dr Mahathir bought himself time and space. But the chickens came home to roost by 1987 when Tengku Razaleigh teamed up with Musa to challenge the Dr Mahathir-Ghafar Baba ticket. The election on April 24 saw Tengku Razaleigh losing to Dr Mahathir by a mere 43 votes, allegedly after a suspicious blackout at the vote-counting centre. Umno continued to flounder after the party polls with Dr Mahathir's legitimacy seriously dented. The purging of Team B supporters such as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Rais Yatim, Shahrir Samad and Radzi Sheikh Ahmad from the Cabinet and government further de-stabilised the situation. While Dr Mahathir's base was weak his style was anything but consultative. Further, the various ideas that he bulldozed were more often than not half-baked, resulting in multiple and major financial scandals in just a few years of his rule. Civil society activism emerged from the more discerning and critical urban populace. The Islamic revival movement was birthed as the rallying point for those who frowned upon Umno-style get-rich-quick materialism. Further, Dr Mahathir not only pitted Umno leaders against each other, he was manipulating ethnic sentiments against each other. In October 1987, the Chinese educationist cause mobilised against a policy of placing teachers who had no proficiency in Mandarin to head Chinese schools. Umno Youth was counter-mobilised to whip up Malay sentiment. Between the April Umno election and October, the Mahathir government drifted purposelessly while his party opponents started a permanent campaign to remove Dr Mahathir in the next party election due in three years' time. The rift was felt. Mercury rose. On October 18, one Private Adam ran amok in Chow Kit with an M16 rifle as Umno Youth was mobilising for a November 1 show of force. Dr Mahathir seized the timely excuse. On October 27, Ops Lalang was launched to arrest his fiercest external critics including the then Leader of the Opposition Lim Kit Siang and 16 DAP elected reps. Not only Dr Mahathir did paralyse the opposition, he terrified the nation and, more importantly, his Umno opponents. (In the same way on a smaller scale, the arrest of the Reformasi activists in April 2001 was meant to revive Dr Mahathir's authority after his administration was shaken for half a year, if not longer, after the shocking defeat at the multiethnic Lunas by-election on November 29, 2000.) A quarter of a century later, as we look back at Dr Mahathir's mass detention camp of 1987 while on the cusp a possible change of government, there is a sense of poetic justice that Operation Lalang "united" Barisan Nasional's opponents and gave them a steely resolve to oppose like never before. Lim Guan Eng, Mat Sabu and many others were young activists at a time when opposition parties and movements were against Barisan Nasional for very different reasons, and often contradictory causes. But in Kamunting, whatever their causes, they were all behind bars as human beings and as Malaysians for an extended period. They came to realise that Barisan Nasional benefited from mobilising racial and religious tensions to strike a blow against its political foes. The ruling coalition controls media resources to set an agenda favouring the establishment. With BN's ample financial resources and armada of draconian laws, the opposition was divided and conquered. The only way to break through was to find common ground and fight for political democratisation. This is one of the noteworthy reasons to remember October 1987. That, and the sufferings of those arrested and their families, who have not suffered in vain. The camaraderie forged in adversity continues to solidify the movement to bring forth a new and better Malaysia for all. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2012 05:10 PM PDT OCT 27 — This weekend's big game in the English Premier League is the visit of Manchester United to unbeaten leaders Chelsea, and I'll look back on that encounter next week. At the other end of the table, there's an even more important game for my old club Reading as they welcome Fulham to Madejski Stadium in search of their first win of the season. Even more important? Well, a draw would be a more than acceptable outcome for both teams at Stamford Bridge — Chelsea would be happy to prolong their unbeaten run while United would be pleased to prevent the Blues from extending their advantage. But for Reading, things are starting to get desperate and a draw would be no good cause for celebration; it might be very early in the season to say this, but victory is the only acceptable result for the Royals today. Under the calm and intelligent management of former chief scout Brian McDermott, Reading were the Championship's surprise package last season, recovering from a mediocre start to run away with the title and secure a return to the top flight following a four-year absence. With a batch of new signings arriving in the summer, hopes were high that the Royals (so nicknamed as they are the only professional club in the royal county of Berkshire) would carry their momentum into the new season. It hasn't happened. A last-minute penalty rescued an opening day draw with Stoke, but defeats against Chelsea, West Brom and Tottenham, draws with Newcastle and Swansea, and last weekend's 1-0 loss at Liverpool have left McDermott's team with no wins and just three points from their opening seven games. With relegation six-pointers (yes, these days there is such a thing in November) against fellow strugglers Norwich and QPR to follow, Reading will be desperate to soothe their nerves in advance of those meetings by picking up their first win of the season today. Their preparation for the game, in the public perception at least, has been overshadowed by veteran striker Jason Roberts. Last weekend Roberts sparked the latest racism row to hit the English game by refusing to wear a promotional T-shirt for the "Kick It Out" campaign, arguing that the movement hasn't done enough to tackle the problems of racism in football. Although his stance later received more high-profile backing from Rio Ferdinand and other black players, Roberts was the public instigator of the protest and most of the Reading-related headlines this week have been about the racism debate. I suspect McDermott is quite happy with that. All the talk of Roberts and racism has deflected attention away from the fact that this is a must-win game for his team, which should somewhat ease the pressure on the players. In their current plight, tension is the last thing that Reading need so the interesting diversion of the discussion around racism has come at a good time. Reading's task won't be easy today because Fulham are looking a strong outfit. Visiting manager Martin Jol will be pleased with his team's start to the season, and last weekend's 1-0 victory over Aston Villa lifted the Cottagers into the top half of the table with four wins from their opening eight games. After finishing ninth last season, Fulham should be able to once more easily avoid a relegation struggle in the months ahead, with Jol's dangerous front three of Dimitar Berbatov, Hugo Rodallega and Martin Petric capable of scoring plenty of goals. Jol will be hoping for a better outcome from this weekend's game than his last trip to Madejski Stadium, which came during his reign as Tottenham manager in 2006; Reading won 3-1 on that occasion, and Jol contributed to his own team's downfall with an ill-advised pre-match comment. I was working in Reading's media department at the time, and when Jol's pre-match press conference contained a disparaging statement that Tottenham "should beat teams like Reading", our coaching staff responded by printing off copies of the comment and plastering them on the dressing room walls. Jol should have known that nothing motivates professional footballers more than the feeling that they have been "disrespected" by the opposition and Reading's players, determined to make Jol eat his words, responded with a fine performance and a deserved 3-1 victory. Of course, it wasn't as simple as Reading winning simply because of Jol's comment in the media (although it helped) because the Royals possessed an excellent team at the time. One of the key players, and the scorer of the second goal back in 2006, was Steve Sidwell, who has since joined Fulham — the flame-haired midfielder's return to his former club provides another of this afternoon's subplots. So too does the appearance of Reading striker Pavel Pogrebnyak. The Russian international first appeared in English football with a move to Fulham on a short-term contract at the end of last season, becoming an instant hit with six goals in 12 outings. Fulham wanted to secure his signature on a permanent basis in the summer but — perhaps influenced by the fact that Reading's new owner Anton Zingarevich is a fellow Russian expat — Pogrebnyak opted to join the Royals instead. That decision irked Jol at the time, but the loss of Pogrebnyak allowed him to step up his ultimately successful pursuit of Berbatov so perhaps, as Jol acknowledged this week, being spurned by the Russian striker worked out to Fulham's advantage in the long run. So with the side-stories of Roberts, Pogrebnyak, Jol and Sidwell to look out for there's plenty of interest in this game. But nothing matters more than the points, and my fingers are crossed for a home win. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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