KOTA KINABALU: The Australian government must also release the full report of their investigation into the "Double Six" crash, says former chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.
He said the Malaysian government should officially and immediately ask the Australian government to release their full report on the plane crash which had also been withheld by the Australian National Archives.
He said the Australian archives had withheld the publication with the official reason given as "release of the information could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth" (Australia).
Another reason stated by the Australian National Archives is that "Malaysia has not as yet publicly released their final and full report of the investigation", said Yong, who was Sabah Progressive Party president, in a statement.
Yong said the Australian government should take immediate steps to make public their reports in line with Putrajaya's decision to make public the investigations into the June 6, 1976 Australian-made Nomad aircraft crash that killed 11 people including then chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens and three Cabinet ministers.
According to Yong, in official replies to his representative on March 14, 2012, the Australian National Archives stated that their "records contain technical details" "which could impact on the Commonwealth's (Australia's) relations with the current government of a foreign country".
In this case, that foreign country has to mean Malaysia and no other, Yong said, adding that with Putrajaya's decision, the Australian government should also publish the reports in full.
Yong said that the Australian National Archives had also disclosed that "certain parts of the text have been expunged".
The replies from the Australian archives disclosed that a total of 110 folios were withheld from publication with each folio containing more than one page, he added.
"Only the release of the full reports, in both Malaysia and Australia, can bring closure to this extremely painful chapter of Sabah's history," he said.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the government would make public the "Double Six" air crash.
Also killed in the crash with Fuad were three of his ministers, an assistant minister, his son, the pilot and government officials.
Fuad, who led Sabah in the formation of Malaysia in 1963, and was Sabah's first chief minister (1963-65), led a newly formed Parti Berjaya to defeat the Usno government led by Tun Datu Mustapha Harun in the April 1976 state election.
Fuad was on his way back to Kota Kinabalu from Labuan when the plane crashed in Sembulan here.
The secrecy over the crash investigation report has led to speculations, including conspiracy theories.
