Lim Kit Siang is a Malaysian politician who served as 3rd Secretary-General, 2nd National Chairman, 1st Parliamentary Leader, 1st National Organising Secretary and 1st Mentor of the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition coalition from the founding of DAP in 1965 to his partial retirement in 2022 and 1st Chairman of the Central Policy and Strategic Planning Commission of DAP since 2004. He served as the 4th, 7th and 10th Leader of the Opposition from April 1973 to August 1974, again from November 1975 to November 1999 and once again from March 2004 to March 2008. In total, he served in the position for 29 years or almost three decades, making him the longest-serving leader of the opposition of Malaysia.
Yazid Sufaat, also known as Yazud bin Sufaat or Yazid Shufaat, is a Malaysian member of the extremist Islamist terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiyah from shortly after its foundation in 1993 until his arrest by Malaysian authorities in December 2001. His speciality had been to develop anthrax as a weapon of bio-terrorism on behalf of the terror group al-Qaeda. Released in 2008, he was again detained on terrorist charges in Malaysia in 2013.
The Internal Security Act 1960 was a preventive detention law in force in Malaysia. The legislation was enacted after the Federation of Malaya gained independence from Britain in 1957. The ISA allows for detention without trial or criminal charges under limited, legally defined circumstances. On 15 September 2011, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak said that this legislation will be repealed and replaced by two new laws. The ISA was replaced and repealed by the Security Offences Act 2012 which has been passed by Parliament and given the royal assent on 18 June 2012. The Act came into force on 31 July 2012.
Operation Lalang was a major crackdown between 27 October and 20 November 1987 undertaken by the Royal Malaysian Police, ostensibly to prevent the occurrence of racial riots in Malaysia. The operation saw the arrest of 106 to 119 people—political activists, opposition politicians, intellectuals, students, artists, scientists and others, who were detained without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA). It was the second largest swoop in Malaysian history involving the ISA since the 13 May riots 18 years earlier. It also involved the revoking of the publishing licenses of two dailies, The Star and the Sin Chew Jit Poh and two weeklies, The Sunday Star and Watan.
Operation Spectrum, also known as the 1987 "Marxist Conspiracy", was the code name for a covert security operation that took place in Singapore on 21 May 1987. Sixteen people were arrested and detained without trial under Singapore's Internal Security Act (ISA) for their alleged involvement in "a Marxist conspiracy to subvert the existing social and political system in Singapore, using communist united front tactics, with a view to establishing a Marxist state." On 20 June 1987, six more people were arrested, bringing the total number of detainees to 22. The mostly English-educated group was a mix of Catholic lay workers, social workers, overseas-educated graduates, theatre practitioners and professionals.
Preventive detention is an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non-punitive purposes, most often to prevent (further) criminal acts.
Yang Mulia Raja Petra bin Raja Kamarudin is a Malaysian blogger known for running the Malaysia Today website and publishing a series of controversial commentaries and articles on Malaysian politics in the website. He is sometimes referred to by the initials RPK. He is currently residing in Manchester, England.
Mas Selamat Kastari, an Indonesian-born Singaporean, was for more than a year Singapore's most-wanted fugitive after escaping from detention on 27 February 2008. The search for him has been described as the largest manhunt ever launched in Singapore. He was eventually recaptured in Skudai, Malaysia, on 1 April 2009, over a year after his escape, and has since been returned to Singapore. His escape was found to be one of the events in Singapore's history that Singaporeans were most aware of, with 95% being aware of it.
Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism or rebellion, to control illegal immigration, or to otherwise protect the ruling regime.
The Al-Ma'unah was a spiritual Islamist militant group based in Malaysia. The group was made famous by their audacious raid on 2 July 2000 on a camp of Malaysian Army Reserve (Mobilised) in the early hours of the morning and stealing weapons from the armoury. The group was later cornered in the village of Sauk, Kuala Kangsar, Perak and was involved in a stand-off the against the Malaysian Army and Royal Malaysian Police forces. The siege was ended when Malaysian security forces, including the army 22nd Grup Gerak Khas and police VAT 69 Pasukan Gerakan Khas, stormed the camp in Operation Dawn.
The Internal Security Act (ISA) of Singapore is a statute that grants the executive power to enforce preventive detention, prevent subversion, suppress organized violence against persons and property, and do other things incidental to the internal security of Singapore. The present Act was originally enacted by the Parliament of Malaysia as the Internal Security Act 1960, and extended to Singapore on 16 September 1963 when Singapore was a state of the Federation of Malaysia.
The Saudi Mabahith, also spelled Mabaheth, is the secret police agency of the Presidency of State Security in Saudi Arabia, and deals with domestic security and counter-intelligence.
Hindu Rights Action Force, better known by its acronym HINDRAF ; is a Hindu-activism right-wing non-governmental organisation (NGO) with its renowned slogan of Makkal Sakti or Kuasa Rakyat translated as People's Power. This organisation began as a coalition of 30 Hindu NGOs committed to the preservation of Hindu community rights and heritage in a multiracial Malaysia.
Political arrests was carried out between 1990 and 1991 to crack down on opposition leaders in Sabah, Malaysia, and their alleged plans to secede the state from Malaysia, allegedly known as Operation Talkak. Seven men were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA). All seven men were leaders or prominent members the Kadazan Cultural Association (KCA), Institute for Development Studies (IDS), Sabah Foundation, and opposition party Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), and were placed under two-year detention orders.
Mohamad bin Sabu, commonly known as Mat Sabu, is a Malaysian politician who served as the Minister of Defence in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration under former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad from May 2018 to the collapse of the PH administration in February 2020. He has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Kota Raja since May 2018, Kuala Kedah from November 1999 to March 2004, Kubang Kerian from April 1995 to November 1999 and Nilam Puri from October 1990 to April 1995. He has also served as the founding and 1st President of the National Trust Party or Parti Amanah Negara (AMANAH), a component party of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) opposition coalition.
Datuk Amar James Wong Kim Min was a Malaysian politician active in the politics of Sarawak for decades. Wong holds the record as the longest serving assemblyman in the history of the state of Sarawak, holding the office for nearly fifty years. Wong served as the first Deputy Chief Minister of Sarawak and the president of the Sarawak National Party (SNAP). He held several other ministries of Sarawak politics until his retirement in 2001.
Abdulwahab Hussain Ali Ahmed Esmael is a Bahraini political activist, writer, religious figure and philosopher. He was one of the most prominent opposition leaders in the 1990s uprising when he was arrested twice for a total length of five years in which he was allegedly subjected to solitary confinement and torture. After his release in 2001, he supported government reform plans.
Dr. Mohd Nasir bin Hashim is a Malaysian democratic socialist politician and former president of the Socialist Party of Malaysia (PSM). He was also the State Assemblyman for Kota Damansara in Selangor from 2008 to 2013. He is a former Chairman of INSAN and Social Research Institute.
Tuang Pik King is a Malaysian civil and minority rights activist and educator from Perak who was detained in the Kamunting Detention Centre Prison during Operation Lalang in the late 1980s along with Mohamad Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Kua Kia Soong, Karpal Singh, Mohd Nasir Hashim, and many more people. Operation Lalang was part of the Malaysian government's crackdown on opposition and dissenting voices at the time.
Dr Syed Husin Ali is a retired academic and politician who served as president of the left-wing Parti (Sosialis) Rakyat Malaysia. He is also a prominent political detainee, who was held for six years without trial under Malaysia's Internal Security Act, from 1974 to 1980. Following the merger of Parti Rakyat Malaysia with Parti Keadilan Nasional, he held the position of deputy president of the merged entity Parti Keadilan Rakyat from 2003 to 2010. He also served two terms in Malaysia's Senate from 2009 to 2015.
