PETALING JAYA: Kampung Memali was a sleepy hollow in Baling, Kedah, until one fateful November day in 1985 which shook things up in the country.
It was lunch time when The Star reporter Koh Teng Hin got the order from his boss in the Penang regional office to make his way to the village where a shoot-out had occurred.
The cub reporter had nothing much to work on to start with.
“There was not much information on what had transpired. All we knew was that a religious cult had clashed with police,” recalled Koh, who was 21 back then.
It was reported on Nov 20 that a curfew was imposed in the Baling area following a police operation to apprehend several criminals.
Bukit Aman stated that the situation was under control but with no mention of casualties or specific location of the incident.
Koh said he, senior reporter AR Amiruddin and photographer Lawrence Seow prepared to go and get the full story.
The team travelled in two cars, with the journey to Kampung Memali taking about two hours. When they got nearer the scene at about 3pm, a police roadblock stopped them in their tracks.
“The press tags did not work and we were told to turn around. The police refused to give us any information,” Koh said.
Seow said he was barred from taking photos.
“I was about to snap a photo of the path leading to the village but the police waved us away,” said the 78-year-old long retired pixman.
Koh said the atmosphere was tense as the team tried to reason with the police. He remembered how the elder Amir pleaded with the armed policemen that they were just pressmen trying to do their job.
Ultimately, they could not proceed further from there.
“We had no leads and no reliable contacts in Baling, which was not our backyard,” he said.
With no mobile phones back then, Koh said Amir contacted the Penang office using a public telephone to seek further instructions.
“Amir was asked to stay back with Lawrence and work on the story by speaking with the locals, while I was to return,” said Koh, who continued making inquiries from Penang as Amir sent updates via fax from the ground. The team was assisted by crime reporter Joseph Chin.
Eventually, the team managed to piece together a cover story published on Nov 21 under the screaming headline “18 killed in Baling”.
A two-page spread outlined an operation on Nov 19 when police apprehended religious teacher Ibrahim Mahmood (also known as Ibrahim Libya) and his followers in Kampung Memali to prevent them from causing further unrest.
Ibrahim contested on a PAS ticket in the 1978 and 1982 general elections, losing on both occasions.
At Kampung Memali, Ibrahim had his own madrasah (religious school) where he gave free religious lessons, preached like a party leader and spread anti-government sentiment.
Then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Datuk Musa Hitam (now Tun) told Parliament that the operation resulted in the deaths of four policemen and 14 others, including Ibrahim, 43, who was shot dead at his house.
The Star report described how Ibrahim’s followers, who included women and children, attacked police using poison darts, catapults and Molotov cocktails as armoured vehicles advanced towards his house. Police described the villagers as “too wild”.
At one point, then Internal Security and Public Order director Datuk Yahya Yeop Ishak walked solo and unarmed to Ibrahim’s front gate in an attempt to persuade him and his followers to surrender peacefully.
However, they responded by opening fire and hurling more Molotov cocktails, forcing Yahya to duck for safety.
The situation was eventually brought under control after armoured vehicles rammed through the gates, with Bukit Aman’s SWAT team storming the house.
Twenty policemen and nine others were injured. Police arrested 159 people including 29 women and 12 children, and seized an assortment of weapons including Molotov cocktails, a shotgun, parangs and spears.
Musa said Ibrahim’s followers frequently carried weapons in the district and challenged police authority, citing a prior incident on Oct 20 when they stopped the Baling OCPD and three other policemen to demand the return of seized weapons. The group also took 10 patrolling policemen hostage.
According to Musa, that incident and growing complaints from villagers led to the police operation codenamed Operasi Hapus (Operation Destroy).
“The team had to be accurate with the information, and check against official government releases. We also had to fight the press deadline,” said Koh.
Seow said when he and Amir finally entered Kampung Memali later, they saw police guarding Ibrahim’s house.
“I managed to take some photos discreetly and then followed Amir to interview a village head,” he said.
The incident continued to draw public attention in the years to follow.
In February 1986, Musa presented a White Paper on Memali in Parliament which revealed that Ibrahim influenced his followers into deviant practices and was planning an armed overthrow of the government.
In 2017, some parties including victims and their families, called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to be established on the incident.
Koh paid tribute to Amir and Chin, who have since passed away, for their tireless work and dedication.
In 2018, Amir wrote in his column about his experience covering the Memali incident, revealing how he made numerous trips to Baling for weeks.
He remembered asking Seow to drive so that he could draft his reports on the way back, often reaching the Penang office late in the night to file his stories.
“The joy of accomplishing mission impossible was exhilarating,” he wrote.
