Dr Mahathir Mohamad's response to the protest by some 30 NGOs that he should not have been invited by Suhakam to speak on human rights is pathetic. He reportedly asked, "Are they denying me my human rights?"

In insisting on his human rights, he has forgotten the human rights that he and his government had denied to thousands of citizens. What about their rights, Mahathir? Did you ever pause to ponder about the rights of those who were locked up based on unsubstantiated and dubious claims? Did it bother you that they lost many, many years of their freedom while you were in charge of this country? Did it ever disturb you that many wasted their best years of their lives locked up in your jails without any recourse to justice?

Do you remember that on Oct 27, 1987 during Operation Lallang, more than a hundred citizens were arrested and detained under the obnoxious ISA while you were the prime minister, home minister and justice minister? They were denied the right to a fair trial and subjected to a grave injustice: many of them were harshly interrogated, cruelly locked away in solitary confinement, and mercilessly tortured. What justice did you extend to them?

You denied our right to information by legislating an undemocratic law that kept under wraps many of the abuses of your administration. This Act protected those who should have been prosecuted. Do you remember Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor's case? He was found guilty of possession of a document that was classified under the Official Secrets Act and was convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

But you must know, as we do, that Ezam's conviction only confirmed that there was a document from the public prosecutor recommending the prosecution of certain top Umno people who were holding important government posts. Didn't this sordid episode deny Ezam's right to expose corruption in high places?

And what about Anwar Ibrahim? Were his human rights any concern of yours? He was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten up in a cowardly manner by your top police officer. He was then found guilty of what were widely believed to be trumped-up charges and languished in jail for six years. Were you concerned about Anwar's human rights? Instead, you came up with that flippant and silly remark that Anwar's injuries could have been self-inflicted.

When your position as Umno president was in danger, the bonus system was introduced in the Umno elections to provide 10 bonus votes for every nomination received. As the incumbent you had the advantages that came with your position which put any likely challenger under a great disadvantage. Were you bothered about the human rights of your prospective challengers?

And during the general elections, what human rights did you extend to the opposition? Did they get equal airtime? Were they given enough time to campaign and put forth their programme to the electorate?

Did you extend the same development funds to opposition MPs that you gave to Barisan MPs? What about the human rights of those people who elected opposition MPs? Did you give a thought to them? Instead, you punished the people who elected the opposition MPs and denied them their right to development funds. The money you denied these people did not come from Barisan Nasional coffers - but that didn't bother you one bit.

How did you treat the democratically elected PBS government? Were the human rights that you now claim for yourself ever extended to the people of Sabah? And how did you treat the people of Terengganu who threw out the Barisan Nasional government in 2000? After the Barisan's defeat, you stopped the petroleum royalties that the state government had been enjoying for so many years. What about the human rights of the people of Terengganu and Sabah and their right to development? Did it ever prick your conscience?

What about the human rights of the natives of Sarawak? Didn't your government ride rough-shod over their rights when the Bakun Dam project bulldozed over their human rights? How many were displaced and did they receive adequate compensation for their forceful displacement? Didn't they lose their right to their native customary land and their traditional way of life?

It was the writer, Mary McCarthy, who said it all: "An unrectified case of injustice has a terrible way of lingering, restlessly, in the social atmosphere."

In your case, there were countless abuses and numerous human rights violations during your long tenure of office. These cannot be so easily forgotten and glossed over. That is why we feel that your presence at the Suhakam Human Rights Day conference tomorrow is most inappropriate.

The writer is president of Aliran.