He was responding to calls by several parties which had been pushing for an RCI.
“To me, people should ask the police because they were on the ground.
“There is no need for an RCI; the police should open an investigation.
“Why is the IGP (inspector-general of police) quiet about it? They should come out and tell the truth.
“Why won’t the police come out and tell the whole story of what happened on the ground?
“They handled the situation; they were on the ground, they have access to everything. They know the story,” he said in an interview.
Abu Talib further questioned those who have been politicising the incident.
“We want peace in the country. We have law and order, we are equal before the law.
“We make laws, but what’s the point of having them if you don’t want to execute them fairly?”
Calls for an RCI had heightened recently when former deputy prime minister Musa Hitam said he welcomed the formation of an RCI on the Memali incident but reiterated that it should only be carried out after the general election.
This came after the latest statement made on Monday by Kedah PAS deputy commissioner Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor who called for the formation of an RCI to be accelerated to uncover the truth behind the 1985 bloody incident.
In October, PAS had reiterated its call to the government to immediately set up an RCI to probe the Memali tragedy.
Its deputy president, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, said many confusing statements had been made about the issue and a fair and transparent investigation should be carried out to reveal the truth.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister at the time of the incident at Kampung Memali in Baling, Kedah. It 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 resulted in the deaths of 18 people, four of them policemen.
Mahathir has claimed he was not in the country during the incident and passed the responsibility to his then deputy Musa.
In recent media reports on the incident, Mahathir, who is chairman of PPBM and Pakatan Harapan, said the villagers in Memali should expect retaliation if they killed policemen.
“I’ve pointed out to them, that four policemen were killed with parangs. To kill with parangs, you must get really close to the policemen.
“And of course, when you kill a policeman, the police have the right to retaliate. One has to remember that these policemen were only carrying out their duty,” Mahathir said.