Double Six tragedy: Verdict ‘a warning’ to Sabahans

Queville To | March 2, 2012

The High Court's ruling favouring ex-Sabah chief minister Harris Salleh in a defamation suit is also seen as a gag on state-federal ties.

PENAMPANG: With widespread talks of an autonomous Sabah and the reinstatement of the terms of the 1963 Malaysia Agreement, the Kota Kinabalu High Court’s recent verdict in a defamation suit surrounding the circumstances that killed then chief minister Fuad Stephens serves as a warning to all Sabahans not to dig up the past.

Former Sabah chief minister Yong Teck Lee said the High Court’s order for him to pay RM1 million damages to Harris Mohd Salleh, also a former chief minister, was a warning to Sabahans never to question the “Double Six tragedy” that killed Stephens and the 10 others, including four state ministers, who were on board with him.

The June 6, 1976 crash occurred while Stephens and his team were returning from Labuan after negotiating Sabah’s oil and gas rights. Immediately after the crash, allegations of foul play surfaced along with reports that Stephens had not been in favour of signing the oil deal.

On June 6, 2011, the Kota Kinabalu High Court had its first hearing of the defamation suit involving Yong and Harris over the plane crash.

The suit was filed by Harris, who was made chief minister following the death of Stephens barely days after overthrowing Usno in a landmark election.

The suit had resurrected questions about what happened that day. These questions were never answered at the time.

But a chance revelation by the Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in his speech delivered at the Kadazandusun Cultural Association (KDCA) on April 2, 2010 on Sabah’s oil wealth had got both Harris and Yong spewing their views in the media.

Last year, just after the first hearing in court, Yong had reportedly said that Tengku Razaleigh’s speech had put on record for the first time the critical moment before the plane crash.

“The crash was a turning point in Sabah political development that wiped out most of the top leaders at the time. It also brings to memory other issues concerning state and federal relations and concerning our petroleum and oil resources,” he had said.

Sabah DAP leaning on KL clout

On Feb 29, Yong, who is now an opposition leader and president of the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said warning aside, he would nevertheless continue to struggle for Sabah autonomy and free the state from the clutches of Kuala Lumpur and end the injustices suffered by Sabah under the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government.

He said as far as he knows, the RM1 million quantum was the biggest damages ever awarded in a libel suit by a politician against another politician in Sabah.

“A few years ago Harris was awarded RM50,000 in another defamation case and I was also awarded RM50,000 after I sued a local daily,” he said.

Though the court verdict was another blow for the beleaguered Yong who lost a parliamentary by-election just over a year ago and has seen his party struggle to gain support as the 13th general election looms, the SAPP leader was in no mood to throw in the towel.

He used the opportunity to rap fast-rising fellow opposition party DAP for playing with words when it promised a similar offering of autonomy for Sabah if it wins the impending general election.

“Everything about DAP in Sabah is being controlled by DAP Kuala Lumpur leaders,” he said.

He reiterated that DAP’s promise of abolishing the crude palm oil sales tax worth RM1 billion is an attempt to give back up to 90% of the amount to major palm oil plantation companies from Kuala Lumpur.

Yong said Sabah would lose RM1 billion every year and the already rich companies from Kuala Lumpur would be much richer while Sabah becomes poorer if DAP goes ahead with the plan.

Toothless DAP leaders

He also said the DAP’s promise to give every household in Penang some RM6,000 annually in Petronas earnings would hurt Sabahans because the money comes from Sabah.

“Penang does not produce oil and the Petronas money must be coming from oil extracted out of Sabah,” he said, adding that Penang was already a rich state and giving its people money taken from a poor state like Sabah is an injustice.

He also accused Sabah DAP leaders of being toothless and afraid to carry out simple events without the presence of Kuala Lumpur leaders.

The SAPP event themed “Land Reforms and Sabah Economy Plan” was organised by the SAPP Moyog constituency liaison committee.

Present were the party’s Moyog chief Aloysius Danim Siap, party adviser Mohd Noor Mansur, deputy presidents and Sepanggar MP Eric Majimbun, Likas assemblyman Liew Teck Chan and other party leaders.