An emergency motion by PAS' Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar to urge the government to retract its white paper on the Memali incident was rejected by Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

 

Mahfuz ( right ) wanted the speaker to "protect the good name of the House" by taking action based on revelations by former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam, who told a forum recently that then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was in the country, and not in China, when the incident that killed 14 people took place.

 

But the speaker rejected the motion, saying that the statement by Musa was made at a forum, thus no action would be taken.

 

"The speaker must realise that the House has been lied to with this white paper," Mahfuz later told a press conference at the Parliament lobby.

Mahfuz also called urged that a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) be formed to investigate the Memali incident.

The Nov 19, 1985 incident also witnessed the death of four policeman, and Musa was largely regarded as the acting prime minister at the time.

However, during a forum on March 27 in Kelantan, Musa said that Mahathir was in the country and thus, he was not actually the acting prime minister when the incident took place.

“Now Musa is saying that he is ready to expose the truth behind Memali. Which means the white paper and the  previous explanation was inaccurate,” he said.