COMMENT | Nov 19, 1985. A date that most Malaysians would not even know the significance of, as it was not discussed in our history textbooks.

This is the date when 18 people ended up dead at a village in Baling, Kedah. A date when four police officers, 13 villagers and a person famously known as Ibrahim Libya died in Kampung Memali.

Who is this Ibrahim Libya? Briefly speaking, he was a well-known preacher in Malaysia who eventually joined PAS. Syed Ahmad Hussein, former dean of the school of social sciences at USM, has described him as a zealous advocate of jihad martyrdom in an article published in the 2002 book “Democracy in Malaysia: Discourses and Practices”. It was also noted that in 1984 a warrant was issued but Ibrahim Libya refused outright to surrender.

Recently, there was a call for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to be formed to investigate the incident. Weirdly enough, this call comes 31 years after the Memali White Paper was presented in Parliament. So why call it now, and for whose benefit? This article plans to examine each possible actor that could possibly gain or lose from such a finding.

The first name that comes to mind when discussing the Memali incident is Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was Malaysian prime minister at that time. In his blog, it was stated that he left for China one day after the Memali incident. He also stated that he left the country in the safe hands of the then deputy prime minister, Musa Hitam.

It is important to note that Musa Hitam was also holding the home minister portfolio. A portfolio that makes sure the inspector-general of police (IGP) reports to him and that he should be responsible for any action taken by the police. Musa Hitam was also responsible for handling inquiries in Dewan Rakyat during the incident, in which he answered and was well aware of all the facts surrounding the incident.

So any possible re-examination of the issue now seems weird especially since Musa Hitam himself agreed that rushing such an RCI seems a bit fishy.

The next person in line is current PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang. You might be wondering why, since he was not the party’s president in 1985 during the time of the attack.

PAS at that juncture had just divorced Barisan Nasional and it was full of hatred towards the legion of Umno members. While people like Ibrahim Libya were preaching about martyrdom and jihad, Hadi brought it to the next level by calling Umno members “kafir”, and this is popularly known as “Amanat Hadi”.

The amanat leaves little room for interpretation. He clearly calls for jihad and called members of Umno "kafir". I hope no one accuses me of equating jihad with violence, but a proper examination of the amanat would reveal words like if you die fighting for this cause, you are considered a martyr...