Memali folk still support PAS despite recent ties with Dr M

 

Perikatan Nasional flags are seen along the road that passes the site of the tragic Kampung Memali incident in Baling, Kedah.

BALING: Despite PAS’s current cooperation with Dr Mahathir Mohamad, villagers in Kampung Memali remain committed to the Islamic party.

Kampung Memali, in Baling, Kedah, was the scene of a bloody tragedy 37 years ago when a massive police siege on the village on Nov 19, 1985, ended with 14 residents and four police officers killed.

Violence erupted when the villagers resisted the police’s attempt to arrest religious teacher and local PAS leader Ibrahim Mahmud under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for deviant teachings, an allegation that had been rejected by PAS.

While PAS blamed Dr Mahathir Mohamad for the incident, the former Umno president has repeatedly defended the security force’s actions.

The former prime minister also laid the blame on PAS followers being influenced by current PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s ‘Amanat Hadi’ speech in 1981.

However, a survey of the village located in the Bayu state seat found only PAS and Perikatan Nasional (PN) flags being flown in the area.

PAS and PN have also set up four operation rooms in the village, which has 200 homes. The Bayu seat is a straight fight between PN’s Taufik Yaacob and Barisan Nasional’s Ishak Mat.

Speaking to FMT, the village spokesman, who only wanted to be known as Ahmad, said the majority of the residents still support PAS and will continue to do so as long as the Islamic party does not change its policies or views.

“I would say 99.9% of the residents here still stand firm with PAS,” said Ahmad, whose father was one of the victims of the fateful incident.

“They (Umno) can’t put up flags here. If they do, we’ll just take them down and hand them back nicely.

“It’s not that we want to fight, it’s just that we can’t accept what happened in the past.”

On July 23, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim highlighted the irony in Mahathir’s support for PN and PAS, after Mahathir made appearances at PAS events in Kota Bharu and Shah Alam in a show of support for PN ahead of Saturday’s state polls in six states.

Mahathir was also seen wearing a PAS shirt on stage sitting next to his one-time nemesis Hadi.

Last May, Hadi and several PAS leaders signed the “Malay Proclamation”, said to be the brainchild of Mahathir.

Despite the Memali incident happening more than three decades ago, Solehah Husain, Ibrahim’s widow, said she has not stopped seeking justice for her husband’s death and that of the other residents in the village – all of whom were accused of being terrorists attempting to overthrow the government.

“Honestly speaking, I will never forgive Dr Mahathir,” she was reported to have said in a 2018 Berita Harian report. - FMT