Waiting 47 years for the truth

The Double Six Tragedy left an indelible mark on Sabahans and the secrecy of its probe has hung over the state like a dark cloud since.

TIME brings all things to pass. The aphorism from ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus seems fitting for what is set to be revealed this week.

After a 47-year long wait, we may finally know the truth behind the tragic air crash which killed 11 people, including twice Sabah chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced last Wednesday that the government had declassified the federal investigation report into the Sabah Air GAF Nomad N-22B crash on June 6, 1976, referred to as the “Double Six” tragedy.

Besides Fuad – who was Huguan Siou, or paramount chief, of the Kadazandusun community – the other notable victims of the crash were three state ministers: Datuk Salleh Sulong (Finance) Datuk Peter Mojuntin (Local Government and Housing), Chong Thien Vun (Public Works and Communications) and assistant minister to the CM, Darius Binion.

The six others were Datuk Wahid Peter Andu, Finance Ministry secretary; Dr Syed Hussin Wafa, director of the Economic Planning Unit; Datuk Ishak Atan, private secretary to then federal Finance Minister and Petronas chairman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah; pilot Capt Gandhi Nathan; the CM’s bodyguard, Corp Said Mohamed; and Johari Stephens, trainee pilot and Fuad’s eldest son.

They were returning to Kota Kinabalu from Labuan when the twin engine, 10-seater plane that was scheduled to land at 3.30pm was seen circling a few times before it spun and crashed into the sea off the village of Sembulan.

According to reports, the control tower had instructed the pilot to circle to make way for another aircraft to either land or take off but this could not be confirmed as the plane did not have a black box to record conversations.

The prime minister then, Tun Hussein Onn, called for an investigation and a team comprising officers from the air force, the police, Civil Aviation Department, and several other agencies began work immediately.

The Australian manufacturer of the aircraft, Government Aircraft Factories (GAF), also launched an investigation, primarily to show that the crash was not due to mechanical defects.

The probe took four and a half months but the findings were not released. Instead, on Oct 28, 1976, Deputy Communications minister Mohd Ali M. Sharif said the findings did not reveal any technical errors or sabotage.

He cited pilot error and overloading, adding that the plane’s storage space at the back of the plane was filled with goods above the maximum load allowed.

Just like the details of the Malaysian report, the Australian findings have also remained confidential till now.

The “G. Bennett – Sabah Air Nomad – Report by Government Aircraft Factories (GAF) investigation team on a crash of Nomad aircraft in Malaysia 9M-ATZ on 6 June 1976” is under wraps in the National Archives of Australia.

The reason? “Malaysia has not as yet publicly released their final and full report of the investigation”.

There is no doubt that the Double Six Tragedy left an indelible mark on Sabahans and the secrecy has hung over the state like a dark cloud ever since.

Fuad, originally Donald Stephens before his conversion to Islam, founded the United National Kadazan Organisation (Unko) in 1961 and played a key role in the formation of Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963.

He became the state’s first chief minister under the Sabah Alliance comprising Unko, Usno and the Sabah Chinese Association.

A year later, he stepped down as CM and became the first federal Cabinet member from Sabah, and in 1973, was appointed governor of Sabah, a position he held until 1975 when he formed Berjaya with Tan Sri Harris Mohd Salleh.

Berjaya won the 1976 state elections, defeating Tun Mustapha Datuk Harun’s Usno, and Fuad led the state the second time around, as Sabah’s fifth CM, this time for just 49 days.

Understandably, the government’s decision to file the report under the Official Secrets Act 1972 (OSA) resulted in all sorts of speculations and conspiracy theories.

Among them was sabotage of the plane and claims that the crash had something to do with oil royalty offered to Sabah. It was rumoured that Fuad had refused the offer of 5% from Petronas and would only sign if it was 20%.

The most intriguing story, though, was court testimony by a witness who related Tengku Razaleigh’s claim that he had already boarded the plane with Sarawak chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya’kub.

According to the witness, then deputy CM Harris came into the plane at the last minute and asked him to get off and to visit a cattle ranch at Banggi Island. Tengku Razaleigh agreed and also asked Abdul Rahman to join him.

Two years after the crash, the government also banned a book written by the late Bernard Sta Maria, a three-term DAP assemblyman from Melaka, who was close to Sabah political leaders.

The book, Peter J. Mojuntin: The Golden Son of Kadazan, contained detailed descriptions of events that happened before, during, and after the plane crash. The ban was to ensure “public safety as the book was very critical of the Federal Government”.

Despite requests from various people and groups over the past decades, the book remains prohibited. If the report can be declassified, surely the ban on the book should be lifted too?

While the current unity government has been lauded for deciding to make the report public, the fact remains that it stems from a decision by Kota Kinabalu High Court judge Christopher Chin Soo Yin on March 8.

He issued an order to declassify and gave the government until June 8 to comply.

“The Double Six crash is to Sabah what the MH370 missing MAS Boeing 777 is to the world, and particularly to the aviation industry,” the judge said in the ruling of a lawsuit filed by former Sabah CM Harris.

Harris filed the suit on July 1, 2022, through a judicial review application, naming the Chief Secretary of the Government, the Transport Minister, and the Government of Malaysia as respondents.

Media consultant M. Veera Pandiyan likes this view of Greek playwright Sophocles: ‘Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things and discloses all.’ The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.