Operation Lalang

Operation Lalang (Operasi Lalang, also referred to as Ops Lalang and taken to mean Weeding Operation) is a major crackdown carried out beginning 27 October 1987 by the Malaysian police, ostensibly to prevent the occurrence of racial riots in Malaysia. The operation saw the arrest of 106 persons –NGO 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 ISA swoop in Malaysian history since the 13 May riots. 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.

The Malaysian government argued that racial tension had reach dangerous proportion in the country, forcing the government to arrest those responsible for stoking the tension. The notion that racial riots were imminent however is contested, and it is widely believed that the operation was designed to control the political opponents of the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad through draconian measures. The event marked the beginning of a period of Mahathir's authoritarian rule.

A number of political developments and issues preceding the operation had caused mounting political and racial tensions in the country. According to the Malaysian government's White paper explaining the arrests, various groups had exploited the government's "liberal" and "tolerant" attitude and played up "sensitive issues", thereby creating racial tension in the country. This racial tension, the government claimed, forced the government to act "swiftly and firmly" to contain the situation.

The crackdown happened against a backdrop in late 1986 and 1987 of a split within UMNO into two opposing groups, commonly referred to as Team A led by Mahathir, and Team B led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Musa Hitam. Mahathir was challenged for the leadership and narrowly won, but faced a subsequent legal challenge on his win.

There were also attacks by the government on several non-governmental organizations (NGO) which were critical of various government policies. Mahathir called these "intellectual elites" as "tools of foreign powers" and saboteurs of democracy.

...
Wikipedia