SHAH ALAM, 31 Mar: The Federal Government has been urged to reopen the investigation on the massacre that happened at the Memali village in Baling, Kedah, in 1985 that claimed 18 lives, including four members of the police, before it is turned into a racial issue.
The former Director of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Royal Malaysian Police (RMP), Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim, said that is the massacre case in Batang Kali or the “Batang Kali Massacre” in 1948, involving the Chinese and the British Government, can be re-opened.
Then new evidence revealed by the former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, last week about Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad being in Malaysia during the incident and not in China, as previously believed, is strong enough to form the basis to reopen the investigation.
“If the government failed to deliberately refuses to reopen the investigation on the Memali tragedy after the shocking revelation, it may be a racial issue that could threaten public order,” he said, quoted from The Malaysian Insider.
He said that if the case if not re-opened, it is likely that there are those who will raise the question about why the existing government i re-investigating the Batang Kali Massacre, with all those killed were Chinese, when the government refuses to re-investigate the Memali tragedy because all its victims were Muslim Malays.
He said that the Batang Kali Massacre was reopened 45 years after reports were made, while for the Memali case, it only resurfaced 29 years later.
“The question of whether Dr Mahathir was in the country or had left for China or any other country the day of the incident, or was in Malaysia, should not be an issue.
“It is believed that Dr Mahathir and Musa were informed and were aware of the Memali operation before it was implemented on 19 November, 1985,” said Mat Zain who is also the Padang Terap, Kuala Nerang, Kedah, District Police Chief at the time.
The police station is situated near the Baling District Police Station, the location of the Memali tragedy.
Mat Zain said that he was also directly involved in the operation to arrest Ibrahim Mahmud, who was also known as Ibrahim Libya, under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
He said that Dr Mahathir and Musa, who was also the home affairs minister at the time, cannot avoid from being responsible, either personally or collectively, for the bloody incident, whether they were in the country or otherwise.
29 years after the Memali incident occurred, Musa revealed that the Prime Minister at the time, Dr Mahathir, was in Kuala Lumpur and not China, as previously reported.
Musa disclosed this at the Malaysian Political Discussion: Past and Present, organised by the Kelantan State Government at Kota Baru last week.
Also at the event was panel member, the Vice-President of PAS, Datuk Husam Musa and the moderator was Associate Professor Datuk Dr Mohamad Agus Yusof.
