Soleha is the widow of Ibrahim Mahmud, better known as Ibrahim Libya, who was a Muslim scholar wanted by the authorities and one of those killed in the raid.
Giving her approval for a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to be carried out on the Kampung Memali incident, Soleha, 65, said she had waited half her life for the truth to be revealed on the bloodshed that killed 13 other Memali villagers and four policemen in 1985, New Straits Times reported.
On Aug 5, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi revived memories of the incident by insinuating that the deaths of the 14 villagers was the responsibility of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Following this, the Memali question was asked of Mahathir during the Nothing to Hide 2.0 forum held in Shah Alam on Aug 13. The Pakatan Harapan chairman responded that the incident was according to standard protocol, suggesting that the police had to react as they lost four men during the raid.
Since then, Memali has been in the spotlight with Zahid saying on Sunday that the government was ready to form a RCI to investigate the incident, following calls by various quarters, including PAS.
According to the daily, Soleha is hopeful that the RCI would be set up so that the public would learn the “truth” about the incident. She also hoped that the RCI would give justice to her husband and others killed on that day.
“I still have in my mind the sight of blood in front of our house and on the road, where one villager was shot dead by police,” she told NST at her house in Kampung Charok Putih Siong in Memali, recalling the events of Nov 19, 1985.
“I also remember cradling my husband in my lap before he died from gunshot wounds that he sustained while he was in the house,” she was quoted as saying.
She added how angry she was at the way the police treated the villagers that day.
“They were all rubber tappers who rushed to help my husband that morning when they heard news that police would arrest him. The police treated them like criminals,” she said, according to NST.
She lamented how the pain of losing her husband was compounded with many people looking down on her family, after the police raid was reported.
“My husband was teaching religious classes to the villagers, but was accused of propagating deviationist teachings,” she was quoted as saying.
According to Soleha, her five children are also pleased to hear about the possibility of an RCI into their father’s death and the raid which changed their lives forever.
“My children were young when the incident occurred. None of them were at home when their father was gunned down.”
She recalls the many people who have visited her family over the years wanting to know the real story.
“Everyone was wondering why police had taken such action, which cost the lives of innocent people.”
Kampung Memali, where people still wait for Mahathir’s apology