The Memali Massacre-1985

In 1985, Malaysian Police laid siege to a village called Memali. The village is home to a religious school led by one Ibrahim Libya. He must have been a popular and much loved religious leader for he had many followers and adherents. After the siege, 14 people were dead. A number of policemen died caused by friendly fire. The villagers including women defended themselves using simple weapons like machetes, wooden poles, farming instruments and the like. They were no match against the fire power of the police.

In other countries, such a bloody incident would cause a public furor and condemnation. Politicians and public spirited individuals will demand an Official Inquiry. In our case, Malaysian Police had attacked and killed Malaysian citizens. There would be calls for public inquiry.

No such thing happened. The government made sure there were none. They quickly cut off public questioning by labeling the people killed as enemies of the state.

Many of the people were arrested under the ISA. Some were forced to make false confessions denouncing the leader of the religious school and so forth. The government closed the incident by declaring the people attacked by police were religious fanatics belonging to a deviant sect. they were also said to be part of a movement to carry out armed insurrection against the government.

The village had been surrounded for a few months. The police cordoned off the area. They took measures to avoid lethal confrontation. Children and women were allowed to come out. They were not allowed to go back into the village. But the leaders of the religious school and a number of resolute villagers stayed on in the village. They refused to give up their positions. Still the police conducted themselves with restraint.

Somebody who was impatient with the progress wanted to speed up things.  The Home Affairs Minister was told that things needed to be wrapped up within a week. The Home Minister acted accordingly and instructed the police to do as commanded.

Tun Musa Hitam recently stirred up a storm. He was the Home Affairs Minister at the time of the incident. Who could have instructed him to speed things up? He said that Mahathir was in Malaysia at the time of the massacre. The implication is, if Mahathir was in Malaysia, he must be the one who ordered Musa to wrap the Memali case in one week. If Dr Mahathir ordered the operations to be rushed, he must bear responsibility over the Memali massacre.

Some people came to Mahathir’s support by saying he was already in China. That is easy to resolve. Examine the records and the official diary of the PM’s office. The people who supported Mahathir say, if they are not mistaken- Mahathir was already in China. This kind of support is a very qualified one. It is subject to the integrity of the mind. Sometimes the mind remembers things that are favourable to the owner of the mind. In the end, those anecdotal confessions are not good enough. Look at the records.

14 people had died. They left behind children. they have relatives, they have folowers. they believed the government acted wrongly and rashly. it was not a just conduct.

The public now demands a public inquiry. A royal Commission of Inquiry perhaps. Headed by a retired judge or even a serving judge. The commission must bring in members, surviving police officers associated with the Memali massacre. That is the way to get to the bottom of the truth. Not to seek blood retribution but to seek justice. We cannot bring back the dead. But they must not die senseless and forgotten.

I like the response of Tengku Razaleigh best. He was asked about who were telling the truth. Razaleigh answered by saying, between Musa and Mahathir, one of them is lying.

The mistakes you do will catch up with you sooner or later. Clearly, either Tun Musa Hitam or Tun Dr Mahathir did not tell the truth. The people who died in the armed assault deserve justice. We cannot bring them back to life, but their honour must be redeemed. Where does it say that religious differences must be responded by death sentence?

This difference in religiosity has been taken too far. It is now a deadly sin to depart from mainstream religious beliefs. Those in power take it upon themselves to judge others in terms of religiosity. The religious mandarins have taken up a similar cause like the White Man’s burden of civilising others. Paranoid and overzealous religious leaders are on a mission of religion-ising others. Just as the present day pronouncement on Syiah. If syiah is wrong and is not Islam, then it must be on the same level as say Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism in the sense of being non Islamic religion. Will Malaysia through the National Fatwa Council make an open declaration that Syiah is non-Islamic? Its followers can be arrested and following the principle of the Mamali Massacre, can be executed?

If Ibrahim Libya had led a deviant sect in Islam, why wasn’t that deviance be stated in detail and pronounced upon by Malaysia’s highest religious authority such as the National Fatwa Council? 

As a result of the decision to complete the operations quickly, everything didn’t go according to plan. Things got messed up and a messed up plan of execution caused many people to die.

A very senior officer at that time refused the attack order as he could see a full scale assault will result in a massacre. This senior police officer was later demoted in rank. It would be some sort of redemption if we could get this senior officer to give his views on the Mamali massacre.

It was indeed a massacre. The leader of the religious group who was also a PAS member was a person known as Ibrahim Libya. He ran a religious school in Memali that gained many adherents. In the ensuing assault, 14 people were killed including the religious teacher, Ibrahim Libya. A few policemen died not as a result of retaliation from the kampong folks, but were victims of friendly fire. In a rushed up job, surely something will go wrong. The kampong people were armed with rudimentary weapons- knives, parangs , cangkuls, wooded poles- they didn’t stand a chance against the full fire power of the police with their heavy weapons and armoured vehicles.

To me, it does not matter if Dr Mahathir were in Malaysia or not at that time. He was the PM and must take responsibility over the conduct of his subordinates.  More so if he were the one who told Tun Musa, he wants things to be sorted out within a week. 

Wanting things done today completed yesterday is Dr Mahathir's trademark.