TO BE REMEMBERED

Why did Musa keep this secret for 30 years and take the blame for the bloodshed in Memali? And why suddenly reveal this most-guarded secret that had remained unknown for 30 years? More importantly, is this true?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Everyone at some point of his or her life would have done some good things and some bad things. Historians, however, would decide who should be remembered as good and who should be remembered as bad. Then the good things of that good person will be highlighted while the same would be done for the bad things of that bad person.

Surely in all those good things done by that good person he or she would have done some bad things. Even Gandhi had his scandals although no one wants to talk about them. And I am equally sure that even Hitler would have done some good things in his life. But of course no one wants to talk about those especially if the good things may be just 1% of the bad things that Hitler did.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in an interview soon after he retired in November 2003 was asked how he would like to be remembered and he replied he does not care how he is remembered. That is actually not true. He does care but he is too proud to admit it.

Dr Mahathir will be remembered for what he did to the judiciary. He will be remembered for his comment regarding Prophet Muhammad’s beard (at least as far as the Muslims are concerned although the non-Malays may not even be aware of this very controversial comment).

Dr Mahathir will also be remembered for cutting the Rulers down to size and for clipping their wings. This, of course, can be interpreted both as positive and negative depending on whether you are a republican or a royalist.

Dr Mahathir will be remembered for adding Sodo Mee to the menu of Mee Sop, Mee Rebus, Mee Goreng, Mee Mamak, Mee Hailam, Hokkien Mee, etc., and made it into a household word, plus of course for what he did to Anwar Ibrahim (although he would have both supporters and detractors on the fate that befell Anwar).

And probably the worst legacy of all would be Operasi Lalang. Until today we are still reminded about how Malaysians were silenced out of fear of Operasi Lalang Version 2.0 (like they are constantly reminded regarding May 13 Version 2.0).

Last night, Tun Musa Hitam dropped a bombshell. In a talk in Kelantan, Musa revealed that Dr Mahathir was actually in Malaysia and not in China, as the whole world had believed for almost 30 years, when the Memali massacre took place.

Now, to me, this is probably number one on the list of ten bad things that Dr Mahathir is going to be remembered for. This is worse than the Operasi Lalang plus the Judiciary Crisis both put together.

Why did Musa keep this secret for 30 years and take the blame for the bloodshed in Memali? And why suddenly reveal this most-guarded secret that had remained unknown for 30 years? More importantly, is this true?

Dr Mahathir will have to clear the air regarding this allegation. There is no way he can remain silent. Either Dr Mahathir was in China or he was in Malaysia. And either Musa was lying (last night) or Malaysia, for 30 years, has been fed a lie that Musa and not Dr Mahathir were to blame for Memali because Dr Mahathir was not even in the country when the massacre happened.