Memali - a reality check

On 27 March 2014 former DPM Musa Hitam made the following statement in Kelantan government (PAS) organized forum on politics (extracts further edited only in length but not contents):

On the day of the Memali incident, Nov 19, 1985, Dr Mahathir was in Kuala Lumpur and I was not the acting prime minister. The moderator showed a reaction of shock and in a clear voice, said ‘My God’, which also shocked the audience.

As the home minister then, I had outlined a general guide, issued a reminder and instructed the police on two things:

i) the law must be complied with; and
ii ) avoid violence and bloodshed.

I assumed responsibility and accountability over what had happened although I was not directly involved in the incident, but I left it to the discretion of the police to undertake the operation, in terms of determining the best time, method and approach to carry it out. [edited out]

On the day of the incident, the then acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) and I had met with Dr Mahathir at his office and that the acting IGP had briefed him on what had happened following the police operation in Memali, which had resulted in the deaths of four policemen and 14 civilians. [...]

On 09 Oct 2016 (this year) RPK essayed a piece on his (RPK's) thoughts on Memali which was published by Malaysian Outlook (extracts further edited only in length but not contents):

apa 'ni, I was in China ........ (town in KL)

For almost 30 years, Malaysians believed that Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in China at that time and that the operation was handled by the then Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam.

Two years ago it was revealed that Mahathir was not in China but was, in fact, in his office in Kuala Lumpur and that he had been monitoring the operation all along.

A White Paper was presented to Parliament stating that Mahathir was overseas when he was not.

That is a serious offence and action can and should be taken against the person who intentionally lied to Parliament.

When Memali first occurred, Musa Hitam was condemned and was called a murderer.

When Musa’s son, Carlos Abdul Rashid (and his wife Rosina Abu Bakar), died in the Highland Towers tragedy on Dec 11, 1993, many people were quite happy and said that that was God’s punishment to Musa for killing innocent people in Memali.

Many people believed that the Memali massacre was due to Umno winning only 70 seats, or less than 50%, in the 1982 general election, soon after Mahathir took over as prime minister.

Even though PAS won only five seats (due to gerrymandering) but the party still won more than 600,000 votes.

That was worrying Mahathir.

In the 1986 general election (after Memali), Umno won 83 seats but in percentage no increase over 1982. [...]

Anyway, Memali, which was supposed to frighten the voters, by showing that PAS was a militant or extremist party, did not really achieve its objective.

But it did result in Musa being cursed and for people to say that the death of his son and daughter-in-law was God’s punishment for Memali.

It is certainly not a nice feeling for people to clap and cheer when your son and his wife die in a tragedy.

For 30 years this was what Musa suffered.

Now we find that he was not, after all, behind Memali but Mahathir was. [...]

Over to you, my friend, and maybe all those who clapped and cheered when Carlos and Rosina died in the Highland Towers collapse can apologise to Musa for being so cruel to him.

(left to right) d-i-l Rosina Abu Bakar, daughter Rosana, Musa Hitam, son Carlos Rashid in happier days

why was god so cruel to Carlos and Rosina?

Many youngsters do not know what Memamli stands for, so let's revise our knowledge of it, or rather the incident in Memali.

Wikipedia says:

The Memali Incident was a major incident that occurred in the remote village of Memali, Baling in the Malaysian state of Kedah on 19 November 1985.

A team of 200 policemen, under orders from the Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam, laid siege to kampung (village) houses in Memali, near Baling in Kedah. The houses were occupied by an Islamic sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim Mahmud a.k.a. Ibrahim Libya. The siege resulted in the deaths of 14 villagers and 4 policemen.

Now get this:

The Memali Incident followed severely strained relationships between UMNO and PAS, the two major political parties in Malaysia. Some PAS leaders had concluded that UMNO members were apostates In 1981, Hadi Awang, (who was then PAS state commissioner for Terengganu, and has been PAS President since 2002) claimed that UMNO perpetuated the unIslamic rule of colonialism, and therefore the struggle of PAS and its supporters against UMNO is jihad, and that those who died in the struggle are al-shahid (martyrs).

In the wake of Hadi's claims, there was a serious rift in the Malay Muslim community. In Besut, Terengganu for example, communities were split to the extent that communal prayers were done separately for UMNO and for PAS congregations.

Firstly, we need to be fair and take note that the villagers in Memali were NOT exactly angels (innocent). They were not only led by a ulama known popularly as Ibrahim Libya (because he was trained in Libya), but a man wanted by the police for harbouring fugitives as well as creating discord and disharmony among the Malay-Muslims for his style of Islamic teachings.

A virtual rebel against the establishment, he defied arrest. Apparently he was much revered by the people in Memali who vowed to defend him to the death, which alas, happened.

The villagers weren't the peaceful law abiding type, and in their fight against the law of Malaysia, were armed with an assortment of weapons like guns, parangs (machetes), sharpened bamboo rods (fave of kampong Malays), and other weapons. These were recipes for an explosive cocktail, namely, weapons, religious fanatics and a rebellious ulama, which the police had to face and bring to order.

Secondly, Pak Haji Hadi Awang then wasn't helpful in his preaching 4 years earlier in his home state of Terengganu, agitating the Malays of PAS to oppose the alleged Malay apostates of UMNO as an Islamic jihad. He had the pompous temerity to subsequently call those killed in Memali as martyrs (al-shahid). Who did he think he was, God's personal commissioner?

Thirdly, even in 1980 there was clearly NO Malay unity, where in Terengganu under Pak Haji Hadi Awang, PAS and Malays even unto the same family members were praying separately, so why bloody blame the DAP today as if the democratic socialist party created schism in the Malay-Muslim community. If there are currently more than 1 Malay party, just look at PAS and UMNO to know why. It's personal power lah!

Fourthly, it was not Malay culture that then divided the Malays but religion, that propagated differently by PAS and UMNO. Is it the same today?

Fifthly, why did god punish Musa (okay, he was cursed by gullible guppies but shouldn't god be aware of that, instead of swallowing those curses made by dumbos?) with the death of his son and daughter-in-law when the incident at Memali was not only Mahathir's responsibility but also a consequence of PAS doctrine of pompous exceptionalism (PAS and its members being special unto Allah swt, as Israelis are special as their god's 'Chosen Ones' as Yanks are special to their Christian god probably because of their wealth and power and love to wallop foreigners, the generic 'Amalekites').

Okay, as I just wrote, the Malays, or to void going back into history, modern Malays were never united even as far back as 1980 due to PAS and UMNO, and never with DAP becoming a divisive factor.

PAS was once part of UMNO and splintered off to become its own party in 1951, but joined up again with UMNO in Razak's BN in 1974 and for a second time, left after 1978 whereafter PAS late spiritual leader allahyarham Nik Aziz was known to have sworn PAS would never ever work with UMNO again, and which, as it appears, Pak Haji Hadi Awang will ignore allahyarham Nik Aziz's words, wakakaka.

To summarize:

The Memali incident has become an emotional issue for many Malays, especially PAS members, where these current admirers fail to realize that in a modern state like Malaya-Malaysia, one like Ibrahim Libya and his disciples could NOT do what he liked or wanted, whether in a state like Malaysia or Saudi Arabia or Iran or Libya.

Was Musa Hitam wrongly punished by his god, while the naughty one escaped with good fortune?

Malay unity is a fallacious fanciful fable since the days of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat. So please don't blame the DAP or anyone.