Barely a month after veteran journalist Charles Chan re-joined The Star as an associate editor, the unthinkable happened.

On Oct 28, 1987, the government pulled back the English-language daily's publishing licence, alongside those of Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan .

Chan was a witness to the shock that reverberated around newsrooms to what would come to be seen as a turning point in Malaysian media operations.

The Star's front-page story that day was headlined 'DETAINED' and displayed the mugshots of 17 of the first batch of detainees held under the Internal Security Act the previous day when Operasi Lalang got underway.

Soon after the newspaper hit the streets, the newsroom was told that its publishing licence would be suspended indefinitely.

At the time, Chan recalls that he was busy at the Business desk, filling in for an editor who was abroad.

"The staff were shocked and dismayed at the suspension of our newspaper and other newspapers as well," said Chan, 62, in an email interview from New Zealand where he now resides.

He said he was not surprised over the ban on the three newspapers, given the political tensions of the day.

It was a year during which many important incidents had taken place and which would shape Malaysia's political landscape.

A storm was brewing in Malay politics as Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad struggled to cling to power in the face of a heavy challenge mounted by 'Team B' in Umno.

Communal issue

Simultaneously, the Chinese community was on the warpath against the government for assigning non-Mandarin speaking school administrators to vernacular schools. Educationists saw this as a threat to mother-tongue education in Chinese schools.

This had significance for The Star . Owned by the investment arm of MCA, the daily gave the issue wide coverage.

Communal tensions were almost palpable when MCA, Barisan Nasional ally Gerakan and opposition DAP joined forces at a rare meeting, held at the Thean Thou temple in Kuala Lumpur to protest the move.

Umno Youth held a retaliatory demonstration at the TPCA Stadium near Chow Kit, threatening the Chinese community with violence, and planned an even bigger rally for Nov 1.

Chan said he was told that the authorities were trying to maintain "public order and stability" by suspending the newspapers.

"I believe that we gave proper coverage, giving all sides concerned a chance to express their opinions. Unfortunately, the authorities held the view that the best way to cover the issue was not to give it any prominence," he recalled

"It was not just (our) coverage but by other publications as well, particularly the Chinese media, that was upsetting the authorities.

"It came to a point when (Umno Youth head) Najib (Abdul Razak) brandished a keris and vowered to bus in one million supporters into Kuala Lumpur to show Malay solidarity. Many people, fearing another May 13 (racial riots of 1969), started to hoard food."

Continuing nightmare

The day after The Star's licence was revoked, journalists still showed up for work although, to their frustration, they could only monitor developments from other news organisations.

"Our managing director, Steven Tan, turned up to address the employees, giving assurances that the company was doing everything possible to get the suspension lifted.

"In the meantime, we were told to be patient. In the weeks that followed, we had a skeleton staff in shifts, mainly to monitor developments over the news wires which kept on churning out reams and reams of news which we could not print."

CY Leow, then head of photography, said there was an air of uncertainty hung over the staff.

The staff received half their monthly salary for the first two months and a quarter month's pay for the subsequent two months.

"Some of us started to look for jobs at other newspapers, but the rumour at the time was that other newspapers were warned not to hire us," said Leow, now 60 and also residing in New Zealand.

"Others gave up hope that The Star was ever going to make a come back and applied for jobs abroad."

But the newspaper did return with a bang on March 26, 1988, with a front page headlined 'We're back!'.

However, the nightmare has yet to end for the media industry as a whole, which has been given a clear signal that the government would not hesitate to close down even newspapers aligned to its political allies.

"(Things) turned for the worse. It was a stark reminder that we do not have a free press. Self-censorship became the norm," said Chan.

"(I was) tasked with training journalists (but) teaching young reporters how to write within such restraints was a responsibility I shouldered without relish."

Soon after, Chan and his family migrated to New Zealand where he worked for the Auckland Sun .

Leow later migrated as well. He worked with The Dominion Post and is current employed at an electronic archiving company.

ANDREW ONG is a member of the Malaysiakini team. This is the first of a series that document the impact of Operasi Lalang on press freedom in Malaysia.