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Lim urged Saifuddin to step in and rectify this “45-year wrong” since the investigative report on the fatal 1976 plane crash in Sabah, known as the “Double Six tragedy”, has already been declassified.
The book chronicles the life of Sabah’s then housing and local government minister Peter Mojuntin, who died in the crash along with then chief minister Fuad Stephens and nine others.
It was written by Bernard Sta Maria, a DAP member and former Banda Hilir assemblyman in May 1978, and 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.
However, Lim urged Saifuddin to read the book for himself, saying the minister would not find anything in it to justify the ban, “just as there is no reason or justification for classifying the investigation report on the Double Six crash under the Official Secrets Act for 47 years”.
“In fact, Bernard has rightly described Mojuntin as an exemplary Malaysian who was inspired by the original nation-building principles of Malaysia,” he said in a statement today.
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 narrates what happened in the years leading to the plane crash.
In the incident, Fuad, 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.
Peter’s son, Donald, had also urged Putrajaya to “continue doing the right thing” and lift the ban on the book.
Yesterday, entrepreneur development and cooperatives minister Ewon Benedick said he had proposed that the Cabinet lift the ban on the book, with Saifuddin set to give his “feedback” on the proposal when the Cabinet meets next.
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