PETALING JAYA: PAS wants a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the Kampung Memali tragedy that occurred in 1985 during the tenure of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
PAS deputy president Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (pic) said there were many discrepancies behind the incident which left 18 people dead and a thorough investigation was needed to find out what actually happened.
His call follows a remark by Dr Mahathir, who responded to a question in a Nothing To Hide 2.0 forum last Sunday that the police had acted according to their standard operating procedures.
"PAS is urging for an RCI to be set up to reopen an investigation into the Memali tragedy so justice can be served to all parties and clear the names of the innocent," he said in a statement, Wednesday.
In an apparent reference to Parti Amanah Negara leaders who were once with PAS, Tuan Ibrahim questioned whether they now agree with Dr Mahathir's version of the tragedy.
Tuan Ibrahim said the country was shocked to hear former deputy prime minister Tan Sri Musa Hitam reveal that Dr Mahathir was in fact in the country when the tragedy struck, and not in China as previously claimed.
"Do they now agree with what he said? Or is the truth no longer important to them because they need Dr Mahathir for the upcoming elections?
"We feel that such a tragedy could have been avoided without having to resort to bloodshed.
"The government should openly apologise to the Memali victims," he said.
In the incident, 18 people, among them four policemen, were killed and many others were injured after the police launched an operation to arrest a religious teacher, Ibrahim Mahmud, who was popularly known as Ibrahim Libya.
According to media reports, the clash between the police and the villagers of Kampung Memali occurred when the residents tried to prevent the arrest of Ibrahim under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for allegedly having engaged in deviant teachings.
Musa was blamed for the deaths as he had been the acting prime minister at the time while Dr Mahathir was in China.
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