“From 1998 to 2001, Dr Mahathir detained many of those who opposed him. And he used the detention without trial law to detain those he could not charge in court,” he said in a blog post today.
Salleh was responding to Mahathir’s claims that Prime Minister Najib Razak would crack down on the opposition and activists in the run-up to the 14th general election, which can be held anytime before mid-2018.
Mahathir in his blog today said there were already signs of a build-up of cases for arresting and detaining opposition leaders which would leave the opposition parties in disarray.
Salleh said the former prime minister’s allegation against Najib was ridiculous and unfounded.
In fact the Human Rights Watch had said in 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 that Malaysia under Mahathir was a police state and Mahathir himself was a dictator, he added.