FORMER police chief Mohammed Hanif Omar has weighed in on the matter of a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) for the Memali tragedy, calling it a “waste of taxpayers money”.

“What exactly are they dissatisfied about?” Hanif said in response to The Malaysian Insight’s request for comment on the government’s proposal for an RCI to investigate the incident that happened 32 years ago.

“What are the important questions that have yet to be answered?”

Hanif is the second former inspector-general of police (IGP) to voice opposition to the proposed RCI, after Abdul Rahim Noor, who earlier today said an RCI was unnecessary as a white paper on the incident had already been published. Rahim had suggested that the government table the white paper in Parliament and allow debate over it instead.

Hanif said another point against the RCI was the high cost, which the people would have to bear.

“RCI is not free, it will cost the people,” said Hanif, whose service from 1974 to 1994 makes him Malaysia’s longest-serving police chief.

He declined to comment on the tragedy, saying he was not in the country at the time.

Hanif had been away on a two-year sabbatical to continue his studies in the United Kingdom during the raid on Memali in Baling, Kedah in November, 1985.

Four police officers and 14 civilians died in the stand-off between law enforcers and the militant Muslim group led by Ibrahim Libya

Mohamed Amin Osman was the acting IGP at the time.

The government released a white paper on the incident on February 26, 1986, signed off by  then-home minister Musa Hitam. 

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government was ready to reopen investigations into the incident, a proposal that was surprisingly welcomed by PAS.

A baffled Rahim Noor today said PAS had no reason to welcome an RCI, which would reveal the role PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang played in the tragedy.

He said young Hadi’s speech in 1981 had influenced Ibrahim and his followers and caused them to think they were fighting a righteous cause.

Hadi had recently blamed the violence that broke out at the Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum on Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s failure to give a satisfactory answer to a question from the floor on the Memali incident.

Dr Mahathir, who was prime minister at the time of the tragedy, is now chairman of the Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition. – August 22, 2017.