Kota Kinabalu: Former Chief Minister Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh described Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the only Malaysian Prime Minister who had the courage to declassify the Malaysian findings on the Double Six tragedy as promised.
“He made a morally and legally correct decision and deserves all the credit considering that all the Prime Ministers before him lacked this courage despite numerous demands from family members and Sabah leaders,” he told Daily Express in an exclusive.
Breaking his silence nearly a week after the release of the report by the Malaysian Transport Ministry after being classified as “official secret” for 47 years, Harris said:
“On behalf of the families of victims of the Double Six and Sabahans, in general, I wish to thank Anwar for releasing the investigation report surrounding the tragic crash of 6th June 1976.
“All this time, I never ever felt guilty and have always maintained my faith in the truth and that such accidents do happen throughout the world. Though tragic as it was, the full report clearly vindicated any wrong doing to do with the accident,” said Harris, 93.
Anwar on April 5 said the decision to reveal the final report was made after taking into account the demands of the next of kin as well as the views of the people of Sabah who wanted detailed information about the incident.
On March 8, the High Court in Sabah ordered Putrajaya to take the necessary steps to declassify the incident. However, the Attorney-General appealed against the decision, leading to a public outcry that the new Unity Government was no better than the past federal governments.
The declassified report held that there was no evidence of sabotage, fire or explosion in the Sabah Air crash that killed then Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens, along with four of his newly-elected Berjaya State Ministers in 1976. Altogether, 11 lives were lost in the tragedy.
On a personal note, Harris said Anwar’s decision also relieved him of the burden of accusations and slander he had to endure all these years, especially at each memorial service.
He said even some professionals harboured the perception that as a beneficiary of the accident – he was instructed by then PM Tun Hussein Onn to take charge of the State Government hours after the crash – he must have somehow caused the plane crash.
“I was not excited about the release of the Investigation Report, as it could only be about what caused the crash, whether human error or aircraft malfunction. “There are still conspiracy theorists with the notion I had the authority to instruct the Malaysian and Australian governments to classify Investigation Reports.
He noted that the Nomad aircraft had been bogged with safety issues with 36 crashes wherever they were flying worldwide and many deaths.
“There is documentary evidence proving the plane was not fit to fly due to faulty designs. The proof for Sabahans is the court decision and the 4 Corners programme aired in Australia on TV7 in 1995. The Investigation Report by the Malaysian Government is conclusive proof that stated the aircraft had not complied with a number of procedures that caused it to crash.”
He regretted that despite all the documentaries and conclusive evidence, the perception of the people had become ingrained that the crash could be due to sabotage, among others.
He noted that barely 24 hours after the report’s release, some disappointed members of the public already started a new conspiracy claiming it had been doctored and was not the original.
He said the perception of Sabahans having an alternative view to facts is very prevalent. He said this could have something to do with Malaysians for many years being instilled with false and fabricated information and drew parallels with the corruption-cum-abuse case of former PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“To the extent whereby people convince themselves the lies to be reality,” he said.
“Despite being jailed for 12 years for laundering billions of ringgit, there are still those who think Najib was politically persecuted and that he should be pardoned.
“Najib, also known as ‘Bossku’, is a popular figure with the potential to win any election. Malaysians having such perception don’t think Najib has laundered public funds, since the government continues to subsidise their food and fuel and pay out cash every year.”
He urged Sabahans to dig deep into their conscience, accept civilisation and uphold the law.
The 21-page report, which was released to the public last Wednesday, concluded that the probable cause was due to the Centre of Gravity position well outside the aft limit which caused the control column to run out of forward range as the nose pitched up when the flaps passed through 25 degrees on the final approach to land.
The report also stated there was no evidence to suggest any failure of the aircraft or its systems prior to the accident, as the aircraft had been maintained in accordance with an approved maintenance schedule and there was also no evidence that the weather conditions contributed in any way to the incident.
The loading of the aircraft was found to be incorrect for the flight in that the COG was significantly aft of the aft limit prescribed for this aircraft.
The Nomad was on its way from Labuan, and crashed in Sembulan while approaching Kota Kinabalu International Airport.
Besides Fuad, the other 10 victims were Datuk Peter Joinod Mojuntin (Sabah Housing and Local Government Minister); Datuk Chong Thien Vun (Sabah Minister of Communications and Public Works) and Datuk Salleh Sulong (Sabah Minister of Finance);
Datuk Darius Binion (Assistant Minister to the Deputy Chief Minister of Sabah); Datuk Wahid Peter Andau (Permanent Secretary of the Sabah Ministry of Finance); Dr Syed Hussein Wafa (Director of the Sabah Economic Planning Unit) and Ishak Atan (Secretary to the Malaysian Finance Minister).
Apart from them, Corporal Said Mohammad (Personal Bodyguard to the Chief Minister); Johari Fuad Stephens (son of the Chief Minister) and Gandhi J Nathan (pilot).
The Daily Express’ award winning team of journalists presents ‘Double Six: The Untold Stories’, a documentary on the plane crash in Sabah (East Malaysia) killing the newly-elected Chief Minister of Sabah Tun Mohd Fuad Stephens, four state ministers and six others on June 6th, 1976. After 46 years the findings of the crash also known to many as The Double Six Tragedy have not been disclosed. Note: This series unravels information not previously available to the public, but does not in any way attribute blame for the crash on any party.
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