Give credit where it’s due, says Leiking on plane crash report declassification

 

Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking (left) said people are going to forget that it was former chief minister Harris Salleh who applied to the court to declassify the report.

PETALING JAYA: Credit must be given to former Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh for Putrajaya’s decision to declassify the report into the 1976 plane crash that killed several Sabah leaders, said former Penampang MP Darell Leiking.

The crash, popularly known as the “Double Six tragedy”, had claimed the lives of then Sabah chief minister Fuad Stephens and 10 others.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government had agreed to declassify the report, which had been placed under the Official Secrets Act. He said the transport ministry would be releasing it next week.

Leiking said the government was only executing the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s judgment, delivered last month, to compel Putrajaya to make public the documents on the crash. The government had been given until June 8 to comply.

The ruling by Justice Christopher Chin followed a lawsuit filed by Harris, who took over the post of chief minister after Fuad’s demise, for the declassification of the report.

“The people are going to forget that it was Harris (who applied to the court to declassify the report). It’s only fair to commend Harris for his application to the High Court.

“They will probably thank Anwar Ibrahim and the rest, but they forget that this has nothing to do with the Cabinet. It was a court decision,” the Warisan deputy president told FMT.

Leiking, a former international trade and industry minister, also said it was the federal government that had authorised the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) to file an application to appeal against the High Court’s decision.

He said the AGC had not withdrawn its application for the appeal, but he assumed this would be done in light of Anwar’s announcement.

Leiking described the government’s move as “a good thing” that would bring relief to all who wished to learn the truth about the tragedy.

He said the next step was for the home ministry to lift its ban on the book written by Bernard Sta Maria titled “The Golden Son of the Kadazan”, which tells the story of Kadazan politician Peter Mojuntin, who also died in the Double Six tragedy.

The book, which has been banned for almost 50 years, narrates what happened in the years leading up to the plane crash.

“They have no reason to ban it anymore. If they are going to declassify the report that’s been ‘hidden’ since 1978, why not lift the ban on (the book)?” Leiking said.

Despite the ban, the book is available in digital form on the internet and is shared freely on social media. - FMT