Speaking to FMT, Hanif, who was the nation’s top cop between 1974 and 1994 said he wasn’t in the country at the time as he was on study leave in the United Kingdom.
“At the time Mohd Amin Osman was acting IGP and Yahaya Yeop was the Director of Public Order and Internal Security.
He said Amin and Yahaya, who have since passed on, were the two principal police officers who planned the attempt to arrrest Ibrahim Libya.
Hanif said a RCI on the Memali incident will be short of the direct input of Amin and Yahaya, though the two did have their support staff, some of whom were still alive.
“I think for those who want a RCI, they should explain why they want it. Why isn’t the White Paper that was released by the government sufficient? What is the objective?”
He said this was necessary to avoid a duplication of the White Paper, adding it cost money and resources to have a RCI.
Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the government was willing to consider a RCI into the Memali incident.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister at the time of the incident at Kampung Memali in Baling, Kedah that saw a confrontation between police and supporters of religious teacher Ibrahim Libya, who resisted attempts to arrest him under the Internal Security Act.
The confrontation, however, resulted in the deaths of 18 people, four of them policemen.
Mahathir had previously claimed he was not in the country during the incident and passed the responsibility to his then deputy Musa Hitam, who was also home minister at the time. However, in his autobiography released in 2014, Musa had written that Mahathir was in the country at the time.
Recently, Haniff Khatri, a lawyer for Mahathir said the people knew a RCI into the Memali incident had political motives.
Kampung Memali, where people still wait for Mahathir’s apology