Donald Peter Mojuntin, son of the then housing and local government minister Peter Mojuntin, expressed relief following the government’s confirmation that the report into the crash, popularly known as the “Double Six tragedy”, would be declassified.
“The long wait is finally over. The decision by the federal Cabinet today is one that the family members of victims have been waiting for nearly 47 years.
“We certainly hope this Cabinet decision will put to rest all uncertainties and conspiracy theories that have cropped up over the last four decades,” he told FMT.
Donald, who is Upko deputy president, praised the government for “doing the right thing”, adding that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was walking the talk when it came to transparency and openness.
He also urged Putrajaya to lift the ban on the publication and distribution of the book “The Golden Son of the Kadazan”, which chronicled the life of his late father and had been banned since it was published in 1978.
“We do not know of any justification to ban the book and neither were we given any reasonable explanation. We implore the prime minister and his Cabinet to continue doing the right thing.”
The book was written by Bernard Sta Maria, a DAP member and former assemblyman for Banda Hilir, Melaka, in May 1978. It was banned on July 22 the same year under the now abolished Internal Security Act.
In 2015, then home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the book was a threat to national interest and security, claiming it contained excessive criticism against Putrajaya and posed a danger to the inter-religious harmony between Muslims and Christians.
Despite the ban, the book is widely available in digital form on the internet. Aside from highlighting Peter’s journey as a Kadazan politician, it also narrates what happened in the years leading to the plane crash on June 6, 1976.
In the incident, Fuad Stephens, who had been sworn in as Sabah chief minister just 53 days earlier, died along with 10 others, including state ministers, when the GAF Nomad aircraft they were in crashed in Sembulan, Kota Kinabalu.
The others who died included state ministers Salleh Sulong, Chong Thien Vun and Peter.
Following the incident, the Australian GAF Nomad manufacturer and the Australian department of transport launched an investigation to prove that the crash was not due to mechanical issues.
The investigation was completed some four months later, but the full report was not made public. Instead, it was classified under the Official Secrets Act.
Meanwhile, Kadazan Society Sabah president Marcel Leiking praised Anwar over the report’s declassification, saying the prime minister was aware of the expectations of the families of the victims and the Kadazan community.
“The entire Kadazan community lost their Huguan Siou (paramount leader), ‘golden son’ Peter, and Kadazan Cultural Association president Darius Bunion in that crash.”
Leiking was Peter’s political secretary at the time of the crash.