Who to gain and who to lose from Memali RCI?

Nov 19, 1985. A date that most Malaysians would not even know the significance of, as it was not discussed in our history textbooks.

This is the date when 18 people ended up dead at a village in Baling, Kedah. A date when four police officers, 13 villagers and a person famously known as Ibrahim Libya died in Kampung Memali.

Who is this Ibrahim Libya? Briefly speaking, he was a well-known preacher in Malaysia who eventually joined PAS. Syed Ahmad Hussein, former dean of the school of social sciences at USM, has described him as a zealous advocate of jihad martyrdom in an article published in the 2002 book “Democracy in Malaysia: Discourses and Practices”. It was also noted that in 1984 a warrant was issued but Ibrahim Libya refused outright to surrender.

Recently, there was a call for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to be formed to investigate the incident. Weirdly enough, this call comes 31 years after the Memali White Paper was presented in Parliament. So why call it now, and for whose benefit? This article plans to examine each possible actor that could possibly gain or lose from such a finding.

The first name that comes to mind when discussing the Memali incident is Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was Malaysian prime minister at that time. In his blog, it was stated that he left for China one day after the Memali incident. He also stated that he left the country in the safe hands of the then deputy prime minister, Musa Hitam.

It is important to note that Musa Hitam was also holding the home minister portfolio. A portfolio that makes sure the inspector-general of police (IGP) reports to him and that he should be responsible for any action taken by the police. Musa Hitam was also responsible for handling inquiries in Dewan Rakyat during the incident, in which he answered and was well aware of all the facts surrounding the incident.

So any possible re-examination of the issue now seems weird especially since Musa Hitam himself agreed that rushing such an RCI seems a bit fishy.

The next person in line is current PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang. You might be wondering why, since he was not the party’s president in 1985 during the time of the attack.

PAS at that juncture had just divorced Barisan Nasional and it was full of hatred towards the legion of Umno members. While people like Ibrahim Libya were preaching about martyrdom and jihad, Hadi brought it to the next level by calling Umno members “kafir”, and this is popularly known as “Amanat Hadi”.

The amanat leaves little room for interpretation. He clearly calls for jihad and called members of Umno "kafir". I hope no one accuses me of equating jihad with violence, but a proper examination of the amanat would reveal words like if you die fighting for this cause, you are considered a martyr. This was also reported in the White Paper.

Possible outcomes

What could possibly come out from such re-investigations? I, for one, believe and echo the concerns of Musa Hitam. The call for such an investigation is rushed, and in order for a proper investigation to be conducted, it has to be done after the poll.

What could happen is, firstly, blame being placed on Mahathir for everything about the incident. To say that everything was orchestrated by him. Bear in mind, this could be a stretch as Musa Hitam was the home minister at that time, which means he also had access to the IGP’s information.

Moreover, the release of the White Paper from the government shows the commitment of the government at that point in time to inform the public of the truth, and no member of the then Barisan Nasional government, many of them still within the cabinet and very much alive, questioned the findings, even when Mahathir stepped down from his position.

But then again, I wouldn’t be surprised by such an outcome, since Umno is going on a witch hunt to brandish and find any incident from the past and link it back to Mahathir.

The second possibility is an attempt to clear Hadi’s name by saying that the amanat was taken out of context, but that again would be hard to believe and would require extraordinary effort in doing so. That amanat was not mere spoken words; it took the form of a hard copy supported and endorsed by PAS. It wasn’t even retracted after the incident.

But the third possibility is the most worrying, the final trump card by BN, a poison dagger to kill PAS. The Memali incident and Amanat Hadi were almost a forgotten scene at the back of many voters’ minds. Reviving it would mean the downfall of PAS.

Remember, four police officers died at that black spot in our country’s history. This will be a grim reminder to all police officers out there of PAS’ action that killed one of their own members. This could be used as a final torch by Umno to burn down any attempt by PAS to win the next election.

Nevertheless, based on the information available to me right now, whatever the government did at that time was commendable. I do regret the deaths that happened but you cannot blame the police for this. They followed the standard operating procedure, and only used guns as a mean of defence.

Four police officers died. Extremism was on a rise where people are starting to arm themselves. If that was not stopped, things might have been worse in our country.

I am not against the RCI. I also want justice for people from Kampung Memali but it has to be free from political stain. It should not be used for any party’s advantage, either PAS, Umno or even Pakatan Harapan. We have seen how the Hillsborough disaster in England was investigated without any external influence. We deserve to know the truth, the real truth.

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SYED SADDIQ SYED ABDUL RAHMAN is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Youth chief. - Mkini