Former Inspector-General of Police, Tun Hanif Omar, is not doing his reputation as the country’s longest-serving top cop any service by retailing cock-and-bull stories about his past police career.
This is the first time I had heard that to maintain the country’s harmony, he had to be tough as the top cop and put me behind bars in 1969.
Sinar Harian reported Hanif as saying that the Alliance had formed its successor coalition, BN, following the 1969 riots.
He said:
“At that time, the Alliance formed BN because the country was on the brink of destruction. DAP suggested that Peninsular Malaysia be split into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese.
“What was my answer? I put Lim Kit Siang in prison.
“He was in (detention) for two years. That was Hanif’s way when I was the inspector-general of police.”
I am shocked beyond words, making me wonder whether Hanif has gone senile or he has suddenly adopted a secret agenda to demonise me and the DAP.
What Hanif said were replete with errors.
This is the first time I have heard that he was responsible for my first detention under the Internal Security Act 1960.
In the first place, he was not the Inspector-General of Police when I was detained for the first time under the Internal Security Act on 18th May 1969.
Hanif served as Inspector-General of Police from 1974 to 1994, after I had been released from ISA detention on Oct. 1, 1970.
Hanif claimed that he was responsible for my first ISA detention in 1969. Was he responsible for my first ISA release on Oct. 1, 1970. It will be interesting to hear Hanif’s other cock-and-bull stories.
Secondly, the National Front was not immediately formed after the May 10, 1969 General Election.
It was formed in 1973 before Hanif became Inspector-General of Police. He became IGP only on 8th June 1974 after the assassination of his predecessor IGP Tan Sri Abdul Rahman in Kuala Lumpur.
There must have been discussions for the formation of National Front before 1973, but clearly the idea of a National Front had not even been conceived when I was arrested under the ISA on May 18, 1969.
But Hanif’s greatest cock-and-bull story is his claim that I had suggested that that Peninsular Malaysia be split into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese, provoking his “tough” response as IGP to put me in prison – when he was not the IGP at the time.
This is also the first time I have heard of any proposal that Peninsular Malaysia be split into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese.
If I had made such a suggestion, it would not have been kept a secret for half a century, for it would have been used down the decades in everyone of the the eleven general elections from 1974 to 2018 to show how divisive, destructive, racist and unpatriotic I had been in wanting to divide up Peninsular Malaysia into two parts according to race.
In fact, in my more than half a century of public life, I had never come across any such suggestion from anyone.
Where did Hanif source such a cock-and-bull story.
I had been the most demonized political leader in the past half a century. I was accused of being a communist; responsible for the May 13, 1969 riots, leading the street demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur shouting anti-Malay and anti-Islam slogans although I was never in Kuala Lumpur after the May 10, 1969 General Election; painted as quite a devil, a puaka, even jembalang; that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam; a stooge of foreign powers; that I dominate Pakatan Harapan and made other leaders like Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and Mohamad Sabu into my stooges and puppets and that I wanted to be Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan could win the 14th General Election.
But all these lies, falsehoods and demonisation pale into insignificance compared with Hanif’s cock-and-bull story that I had advocated after the May 1969 general election for Peninsular Malaysia to be split into two, East Coast for the Malays and the West Coast for the Chinese.
I am sure that the Special Branch, one of the most competent in the world, would have a full record chronicling my whereabouts in the eight day from May 10 (Polling Day of the 1969 General Election) to 18th May 1969, when I was detained at the Subang International Airport, when I flew in from Singapore against advice from party leaders and my family not to return home as I was on the blacklist for arrest under the Internal Security Act.
During this eight-day period, I was never in Kuala Lumpur, as I was in Malacca, Petaling Jaya, Sabah and Singapore.
I challenge Hanif to quote chapter and verse, date and place, where I had made such a ridiculous proposal. If the information is classified as official secret, then it shoud be declassified.
In any event, would such information be classified as official secrets if I had in fact made such a proposal which caused him to give me the Hanif treatment by putting me in prison.
I give Hanif two days to respond to this challenge or Malaysians must conclude that he is senile or had a special agenda to demonise me and DAP with such a lie.
I reserve my right to institute legal action to vindicate my character and reputation which I would disclose after two days.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, 7th September 2018)