PAKATAN Harapan chairman Dr Mahathir Mohamad has apologised for his harsh description of the deaths at the police siege of Memali in 1985.

“Sometimes I say the wrong things in my speeches. Perhaps the words I used were harsh. I apologise to the families of those who died in Memali,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page today.

The former prime minister, however, stood by his view that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang had escalated the situation, which led to the deaths.

“The Memali incident could have been averted if Hadi had not said that dying while fighting the government was mati syahid (martyrdom),” he said.

Mahathir said at a ceramah at Pantai Dalam, Kuala Lumpur, last night that those who died in Memali were not martyrs, but “mati katak” (had died in vain).

PAS slammed Dr Mahathir’s comment, with deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man saying that it was an insult to the deceased, their families, and the Malaysian people. – May 4, 2018.