Harris wants contempt proceedings against Yong

The peeved former Sabah chief minister hauls his peer Yong Teck Lee to court again over the later's warning to Sabahans in relation to a recent court ruling on the Double Six tragedy.

KOTA KINABALU: Former chief minister Harris Mohd Salleh is seeking court action against Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) leader Yong Teck Lee and his party this time over statements the latter made about a judgment that favoured him.

Harris is peeved with Yong’s statement that the recent High Court verdict against him (Yong) and his SAPP would have the effect of silencing those seeking to know the full circumstances surrounding what has come to be known as the “Double Six Tragedy” , details of which were never released.

He said in a statement today that Yong, also a former Sabah chief minister, and SAPP had ignored the injunction granted to him by the court and was in contempt of court.

The High Court had last week ordered Yong and SAPP to pay Harris RM1 million in damages for calling for the re-opening of the investigation surrounding the Nomad plane crash that killed former chief minister Fuad Stephens and 10 others on board with him on a flight from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu on June 6, 1976.

Yong in a statement a day later said the judgment could be interpreted as a warning to Sabahans not to talk anymore about the tragedy.

Harris said he had asked his lawyer to file contempt of court proceedings against Yong and his party for criticising a High Court ruling here awarding him RM1 million in libel damages.

Alternatively, he said, he has asked his lawyer to write to the federal Attorney-General to take contempt proceedings against Yong and SAPP for scandalising and undermining public confidence in the court.

‘Yong criticised judgment’

High Court Judge Abdul Rahman Sebli had, on Feb 29, ordered Yong and SAPP to pay Harris RM1 million in damages for defamation over statements made against the latter in relation to the plane crash.

In a statement issued here yesterday, Harris deplored Yong’s statements which were widely reported in the local press for criticising the court’s judgment.

He pointed out that the judge never said such a thing and on the contrary, clearly stated in his ruling that there was noting wrong for Yong to call for a reinvestigation into the tragedy.

However, the court pointed out that Yong went too far when he insinuated a criminal act on Harris’s part over the air crash incident.

Harris, who headed the state government from 1976 to 1985, said that interpreting the judgment as a warning that Sabahans should never talk any ore about the “Double Six” tragedy is Yong’s own imagination and clearly aimed at instigating the public to have a biased perception on the judiciary.

According to him, Yong understood why the judge in his verdict said that there was noting wrong for him (Yong) to call for a reinvestigation of the plane crash that caused the death of Fuad and the 10 others.

The judge ruled that when Yong insinuated that the plaintiff (Harris) had “blood on his hand” and should be investigated for criminal act, he had crossed the line separating fair comment and malice afterthought.

Harris contended that by (using) the phrase “blood on his hand” the judge merely emphasised the defamatory insinuation of Yong’s statements, especially the one published on April 9, 2010.

“Therefore, Yong was clearly twisting the court’s judgment and scandalising the court and committed contempt of court by saying that he has never said there is blood in my hand as was stated by the judge in his judgment,” he said.

Issue in spotlight

Harris said that it is unbecoming of a lawyer and a party president to criticise the judge’s decision, adding that as an official of the court, Yong should question the court’s judgment in the Court of Appeal.

“As a lawyer, Yong is knowledgeable about his right under the law. He is fully aware that under the Malaysian legal system he can appeal against the decision of the High Court to the Court of Appeal.

“Yong had publicly stated that he would appeal against the High Court’s ruling. Thus, he need not attack the judge’s decision and let the Court of Appeal decide on his appeal,” he said.

Yong has denied ever stating that Harris “had blood on his hand” in reference to the crash.

The crash that happened 36 years ago was brought back into the spotlight after former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the founding chairman of national oil company, Petronas, said in a talk here in 2010 that the only reason he was still alive today was because he had disembarked from the ill-fated plane minutes before it was due to take off on Harris’ invitation.

Yong seized on his disclosure as new evidence which he said was sufficient grounds for re-opening the investigation of the crash, an emotive subject in Sabah as just days after the tragedy, the state’s oil wealth was signed over to the federal government in return for 5% royalty.