KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Former Ops Lalang detainee Lim Guan Eng today cleared Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of any part in the 1987 security crackdown, pinning responsibility for the detention of over 100 opposition figures squarely on Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The DAP secretary-general said he was acutely familiar with the entire episode as he had been the first to be detained and last to be freed in the operation purportedly to prevent a repeat of the racial riots of 1969.

“My detention order, like those for DAP leaders such as Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang, was signed by Tun Dr Mahathir. Amongst the reasons for my detention without trial under the ISA was that I had defended Chinese education,” Lim said in a statement today.

Criticising MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai’s attempt yesterday to associate Anwar to the crackdown by virtue of his presence in the Cabinet then as twisted logic, Lim said the former’s claim sought to deny that Dr Mahathir was the then-home minister who authorised the detentions.

Depicting Anwar as repentant, the Penang chief minister also pointed out that the former deputy minister had spoken in his defence when he was imprisoned in 1998 over charges stemming from his criticism of the authorities’ failure to pursue a statutory rape case against a senior government figure.

“No [Barisan Nasional] leader and not even one single MCA leader had stood up for me or for justice then. Liow Tiong Lai, where were you in 1987 and 1998?” Lim asked today.

The Ops Lalang crackdown took place after Chinese discontent over alleged interference in vernacular schools culminated in a 2,000-strong public demonstration involving both DAP and MCA.

Attempts have begun to link Anwar to Ops Lalang and the race riots of May 13, 1969 — both contentious points of history for the Chinese community — ahead of the Kajang by-election next month.

Four in every 10 voters in the state seat are Chinese.

Yesterday, Umno-linked newspaper Berita Harian published an article that cited scholars on Anwar’s roles in both events, which it sought to convey as the politician’s long-lived “crisis” with the Chinese community.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir also said at a forum yesterday that Anwar played a “key role” in Ops Lalang by dint of his position as deputy prime minister then.

Dr Mahathir said Anwar should have resigned if he had not agreed with the decision to conduct Ops Lalang.

In a surprise move, PKR’s Lee Chin Cheh resigned as Kajang assemblyman, presumably to pave way for Anwar to contest the by-election.

The EC has set March 23 as the polling date for the Kajang by-election, the country’s third since Election 2013 last May.

Nomination will be on March 11, while early voting has been set for March 19.

Lee won the Kajang state seat in Election 2013 with a 6,824-vote majority.