Ooops... Lalang!

Tomorrow October 27 - 20 years ago - 106 people lost their liberty and a couple of newspapers were shut down in what was infamously called Ops Lalang.

Those detained then - politicians and activists - will remember the occasion in a series of events tomorrow and among them will be one of those who precipitated Ops Lalang - Anwar Ibrahim who was then a rising star in UMNO and had held the post of Education Minister.

The other midwife for Ops Lalang was Najib Abdul Razak - who rallied support for Anwar when Chinese educationists protested against Anwar for insisting on placing non-Chinese-educated educationists in Chinese vernacular schools.

The situation came to a head and then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad took advantage to round up political nemeses under the Internal Security Act in the eponymous operation.

But times have changed!

Anwar is now in the opposition and Najib is railing against Anwar. Both are like lalang - weeds -that wave according to the wind - with not much of a consistent platform or principles to live by.

And apparently both are options as future leaders of Malaysia to replace a rather somnambulant Abdullah Ahmad Badawi if we still remain cowed - then by Mahathir, now by mindset - that Malaysian leaders come from UMNO or its dissidents who return to the fold.

We in the Siber Party of Malaysia (M) believe that its time - so let's make it the anniversary of Ops Lalang - to move towards a leadership of the able and capable and not one of shit and shift!

So, let's keep the lalangs in the past!