Kampung Memali, where people still wait for Mahathir’s apology

Survivors, family members of those killed in this sleepy village in Baling recall events of that fateful day in November 1985, blaming the former prime minister for what happened.

BALING: Life really began at 40 for Abdullah Che Soh.

It was at that age, 32 years ago, that he cheated death, unlike the others he knew who were killed after the police laid siege on Kampung Memali, a sleepy village tucked in one part of Baling, Kedah.

But while Baling is widely mentioned in school text books for the historic meeting that took place between the British colonial government and communist insurgents in Malaya, Kampung Memali has made its mark in contemporary Malaysian politics.

Just last week, it was thrust back into national discourse at the Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum organised by PPBM.

A PPBM youth member had asked Dr Mahathir Mohamad about the tragedy, during the forum held in Shah Alam. Moments after the former prime minister gave his response, all hell broke loose when projectiles were thrown at the stage.

A typical house in present-day Kampung Memali, a village of 2,000 in Baling.

Critics of the 92-year-old saw in the question a chance to resurrect sins of the past and connect it to Mahathir who now shares the stage with the same opposition leaders he once fought.

Mahathir was after all the prime minister when 14 villagers and 4 policemen were killed in a raid by the police on a group who were considered Islamic extremists by the authorities. Scores of others were injured during the incident, including Abdullah, who took seven bullets.

Memali is thrust back into national politics, 32 years after a bloody incident here which killed 18 people.

The memory of that day sees Abdullah continuing to despise Mahathir until today.

“They have put seven bullets in my body. How am I to forgive him? If he comes here, I will “lastik” him,” he told FMT, referring to the action of shooting a rubber band.

Abdullah sustained serious injuries from gunshot wounds to the chest, hip, wrist, elbow and right hand.

So would he be willing to forgive Mahathir, the man he blames for the attack?

“I think we can, provided he publicly apologises,” Abdullah said.

Public enemy

On Nov 19, 1985, some 200 policemen arrived at the village, transforming Memali into a top security area.

It was not the first time the police were sent there by the top guns in Kuala Lumpur, only to return empty-handed.

Authorities were determined to arrest preacher Ibrahim Mahmud under the ISA.

This time, however, they were under strict orders to bring back Muslim scholar Ibrahim Mahmud, affectionately called Ibrahim Libya, to Kuala Lumpur, and have him arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The villagers were prepared. According to Abdullah, they were aware their home made weapons of parang and knives were no match against the gun-wielding security forces closing in on them.

However, that didn’t stop them from putting out a brave defence of Ibrahim, forming a human shield in his modest house.

The battle ended by dusk, and it was clear who had the upperhand. An entire village, including women and children, was carted away in dozens of trucks.

Abdullah was among the “luckier” ones from the hundreds who were detained.

He and 35 others were arrested under ISA, the draconian law used by authorities during the 80s to silence political dissent.

Water under the bridge

Today, Memali is a village of some 2,000 people, most of them rubber tappers.

The proverbial water under the bridge has not happened here, three decades after that bloody Tuesday. Mahathir’s name is almost taboo here, as are the sight of police officers.

Like Abdullah, even the 30-somethings who were too young to have any recollection of the incident are convinced that Mahathir was responsible for the bloodshed.

Yet, some villagers including those who were arrested are willing to give Mahathir a second chance, so long as he comes to their kampung to apologise publicly.

Some months after the incident, Mahathir, in the Dewan Rakyat, had accused the villagers of being “Islamic fanatics” who were bent on attacking the security forces with Molotov cocktails and poisoned arrows.

Abdullah disputes the claim, and points to some of his fingers which have become numb as a result of the gunshot wounds.

“I was not holding any weapon. I put my fist up and they shot at me. I just wanted to protect my Tok Guru,” he said, addressing Ibrahim as the “revered teacher”.

Abdullah’s wife, Kalsom Salleh said she still remembers the horror of seeing her wounded husband cuffed on the hands and legs.

Abdullah remained shackled and was forced to relieve himself in the jail cell, she recalls.

“It was torture. I broke into tears as I saw him lying in his own urine and excrement. I screamed at the policemen at the Alor Setar lock up to let him out,” said Kalsom, 65, who was also detained together with some 400 other villagers.

Kalsom recalled how she was forced by police officers to admit they were part of a Islamic deviationist group during interrogation.

She said she was not apologetic over her support for PAS.

“We told them we are sebati (one) with PAS. We were normal Muslims who prayed five times a day,” she said.

Deviant label

Abdullah rejected the deviationist label the government had put on Ibrahim.

He said Umno had feared PAS’s increasing influence among the Malays, and cooked up claims to show Ibrahim as a national security threat.

Zaman Mahmud, another villager who was detained, still cannot forget the “crimes” against his people.

“But if Mahathir says sorry, we might forgive you, insha Allah. If Allah can forgive his servants, why can’t we do the same?” said the 65-year-old rubber tapper, who once headed the PAS branch in Kg Charok Puteh in Memali.

But he said memories of 1985 meant that Mahathir’s PPBM might not make inroads here.

marzuki ahmad

“This voting district is 100% PAS,” he said, while admitting that the Bayu state seat within the Baling parliamentary constituency was won by Umno.

“People here are hardcore supporters of PAS,” Zaman said.

Meanwhile, Marzuki Ahmad, a former mudir (headmaster) of the madrasah set-up by Ibrahim, questions Mahathir’s defence of the Memali siege by raising the death of the four policemen.

Marzuki, 68, said the policemen died of gunshots, and the kampung folk had no access to firearms.

“Innocent parents of children were killed. Please do not forget this fact,” he said.

This madrasah in Memali was established by Ibrahim Libya months before the major security operation in November 1985.

Children play outside the Madrasah Islahiah Diniah where Ibrahim Libya once taught.

Marizah Mat Arof

Marizah Mat Arof was more unforgiving towards Mahathir. She was only 15 when she saw her father, Mat Arof Hashim, 42, killed in the incident.

“Is he still at peace?” she asked. “All five of my siblings including myself had to live without our father.”

She herself, had spent nearly 40 days at a detention centre in Tanjung Pari, not far from Memali.

So did Siti Aishah Ahmed, 65, who watched her husband shot and killed by the police.

“They shot him and he fell to his knees, in a sujud (prostrating) position while holding his chest.

“The policemen then placed my husband with six other dead people by the roadside, like it was nothing,” she said.

‘Lies against Ibrahim’

Aishah still holds a grudge when she sees police officers.

Siti Aishah

“They cannot pass by here. We do not want to see them here at all. We ‘didih’ (get angry) when they ride past.”

Like other villagers, Aishah said she too was forced to “confess” that they were part of a cult.

“They kept asking us to admit that we were part of a cult, and accused us of regarding Ibrahim a prophet.

“We refused to comply as it was a lie. Ibrahim was a good man, a religious man, he was a PAS spiritual leader,” she said.

In a court settlement, the government paid RM20,000 to the widows of the men who died in the Memali incident.

For Aishah, it was nothing.

“RM3,000 went to legal fees. We had to rent a hostel in Alor Star since we did not want to travel back and forth for our High Court hearing.

“How is that small amount going to help us raise children?” she asked.

But Aishah has one hope, that the story of Memali is truthfully told in history books.

In the meantime, the memory of Memali still haunts them. Perhaps only to be laid to rest with the apology that Abdullah and others are longing for.