Hawa Jaafar, the younger sister of Private Adam Jaafar, denied that her brother had gone on a shooting spree because their sibling, said to be a caddy, had purportedly been murdered by former Johor ruler Sultan Iskandar Sultan Ismail.
“The story is not true,” she said.
The real reason he had run amok, she added, was that he had been facing problems at his workplace.
Hawa’s apology followed renewed attempts by some to connect the amok incident to the Johor royal family.
She said her family had nothing to do with the royal family, and that they had never met them and did not know them.
“I just want to say one thing and one thing only. My sibling was not murdered. When people say we have been paid to keep quiet, that we are not even defending a sibling who was murdered, we are really unhappy.
“My sibling died in a house fire in 1975,” she said in an emotionally charged press conference at their family home here. Also present were Hawa’s younger brother Arman, and family friend Hamidah Osman.
The press conference was held to clear the air over what had caused Adam to run amok on the night of Oct 18, 1987, in downtown Kuala Lumpur. In the incident, he had fired his M16 rifle wildly, hitting two civilians, one of whom died.
The next day, Chow Kit was a ghost town with no one allowed to enter. Police snipers were tasked with locating Adam but to no avail.
Eventually, Adam was persuaded by his superior to lay down arms and surrender.
According to Hawa, Adam, now 53, is in jail for drug use – a fact that she did not want to reveal, but said she had to for fear of being accused of hiding her brother.
“He has been in the Penang prison for two years. He was sentenced to five years’ jail for drug use, as he was arrested twice.
“You see, we have been living in distress for 30 years with people making false accusations that my sibling was murdered.
“As if it was not bad enough that Adam was suffering in the army, being ill-treated and unable to meet his superiors, he was the one providing for the family, and we were then accused of being paid to keep quiet. These are all lies,” she said.
Hawa said if it was true that her family had been paid to keep quiet, they would be living a life of luxury now, not staying in a cramped apartment.
When asked whether the issue of the sibling being murdered was ever raised in court proceedings, which lasted for three years, Hawa, who is now retired, said the female siblings in the family were asked to leave the court as Adam wanted to tell stories of internal problems.
“Only our late parents remained in court. They later told us that Adam had been physically, mentally and sexually abused (in the army),” she said.
Hawa called for an end to the false accusations, which, she said, had caused much distress to the family, especially her late parents.
“This incident must be revisited. The accusations must be put to rest once and for all. People should stop spreading these lies. Are you not ashamed at all?” she asked.