Putrajaya mulls another RCI, this time for Memali

The government is willing to consider a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the Memali tragedy, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

"The government is ready to consider the setting up of a Memali RCI if there are any quarters who request or propose for it, in the interest of the victims of the incident," Zahid said in a statement posted on his Twitter account.

The Memali tragedy was a clash between the police force and an Islamic sect in 1985 which resulted in 18 deaths including four police officers.

The villagers, who had stockpiled weapons, barricaded themselves in when police attempted to arrest their leader Ibrahim Mahmood.

If the government decides to go ahead with the RCI, it will be the second commission set up this year to probe scandals or controversies which happened during former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's era.

Mahathir claimed he was not in the country during the incident in 1985 and had passed the responsibility to his then deputy Musa Hitam.

In more recent comments about the incident, Mahathir said the villagers in Memali should expect retaliation if they killed cops.

The government had also set up an RCI to investigate the losses suffered by Bank Negara Malaysia when it was speculating in the forex market in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Mahathir was prime minister during this time.

Mahathir, who is now on a warpath with the current government, had accused Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of corruption and vowed to dislodge him.

Najib denied the claims and had accused Mahathir of aspiring to install his own son Mukhriz as prime minister, a claim which Mukhriz also denied. -Mkini