Hantu Laut
Pursuant to my post "Memali Outrageous Lie:Mahathir Was In The Air On The Way To Beijing" , I have managed to extract from my archives details of former Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad's visit to China from 20th to 28th November 1985.
Musa Hitam must have had lapse of memory. The Memali incident must have happened on the 19th November and Mahathir was only informed after he departed the country. Mahathir left for China in the early morning of 20th November 1985 and was away for 9 days visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhaou, Xian and Guangzhou.
Our flight MH400 (chartered) departed Subang International Airport at 7.30 a.m bound for Beijing.
There were 132 delegates from the business sector. Many have become big names in the corporate world with some making it to the exclusive billionaires club.
It was a gathering of many top-notch businessmen from the country and if the plane had gone down, it would have taken with it three-quarters of Malaysia's top business people.
YTL's Tan Sri Yeoh Tiong Lay and his son Francis Yeoh were both on the flight. Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, who was just run-of-the mill businessman then was also on the flight. Vincent Tan of Berjaya Group was not yet a Tan Sri, nor a Datuk.
It was a motley collection of who's who of Malaysia's corporate world.
The richest man in the country, Malaysia's Robert Kuok joined the PM's delegation in China. Mr Kuok had just started building his Shangri-La Hotel and the World Trade Center in Beijing at that time.
Without much ado, let me show the list of who's who on the flight to Beijing with PM Mahathir Mohammad (click to enlarge)
A guide handbook on China prepared by Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Many of the names on the list, Chinese and Bumiputras alike, had become rich during Mahathir's time as prime minister.
Amazingly, non had come out to Mahathir's defence.
There is honour among thieves, there is none among politicians.
Hantu Laut
I was on the same flight with Mahathir on that fateful day and we were still in the air on the way to Beijing when a call came through the captain to inform Mahathir about the Memali incident. I remember it was somewhere in November 1985.
Whether Mahathir had prior knowledge of the incident I am not sure.
I was a member of the trade delegation that travelled on the same aircraft as Mahathir when the news broke soon after it happened.
It is strange that after so many decades Musa Hitam's memory was suddenly jolted to remind him that Mahathir was in the country when the incident happened.
He said Mahathir was still in the country two to three days after the incident. This is certainly outrageous, Mahathir was in Beijing then.
Why did he wait almost 30 years to break his silence?
I suppose, it's typical of Malay leaders when they have no more position in the party or no more appointee to lucrative position, they hallucinate in make believe stories, or lie through their teeth to save their own skin.
Is Musa telling a lie or has he gone senile? There were over 100 people on that plane who could testify that Mahathir was on the plane and not in the country, many of them were prominent political and corporate figures.
The following are some prominent figures on the flight to Beijing:
Tengku Ahmad Rithauddeen........Minister of Foreign Affairs
Khalid Ibrahim.......now the Menteri Besar of Selangor (my sincere apology to Khalid Ibrahim, if he was not there as I couldn't find his name of the list of delegates)
Moehamad Izat Emir..............now President PERDASAMA
Wee Boon Ping (deceased)...........Sarawak businessman
G.R.Ismail (deceased)..............Sabah businessman
Marina Mahathir.........Tun Mahathir's daughter
The list will be too long to mention everyone's name.
I suggest Musa think hard whether what he claimed is true.
