Ku Li: RCI on Memali good if people want it

(MMO) – A royal inquiry on the deadly 1985 Memali incident would be beneficial even if conducted decades later, said Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

Commenting on the PAS Islamist party’s call for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI), the former minister noted, however, that the topic had been extensively covered both in Parliament and in a government White Paper.

“If there needs to be further investigation, however, then it would be good if it satisfies public desire,” the Gua Musang frequently called Ku Li was quoted as saying by the Sinar Harian newspaper.

“Unresolved matters should be addressed so that the public will be content,” he added.

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man renewed calls for a RCI on the Memali incident this week, after questions about the siege caused a riot at a forum featuring Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum in Shah Alam on Sunday featuring Dr Mahathir, who is also PPBM chairman, was disrupted by some people who set off flares and threw shoes towards the stage, leading to a mass brawl.

According to previous reports, then-deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam had ordered a team of around 200 police officers to lay siege on the remote village near Baling that was occupied by around 400 of the sect’s members, led by Muslim preacher Ibrahim Libya.

The siege was originally meant to detain Ibrahim under the Internal Security Act (ISA) but led to a clash that killed 18 people.

Musa was blamed for the deaths because he was believed to have been acting prime minister as Dr Mahathir was supposedly in China then, but he asserted in 2014 that the former prime minister was in the country at the time and only left for China later.