KUALA LUMPUR, April 6 — DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang today called for the reports by the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) to be made public in keeping with the principles of good governance.
In a statement, Lim said it was never the original intention to have both the CEP and IRC reports under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972 that has kept them away from public debate and discussion.
“I had always been mystified as to why former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad refused to ask the Cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council to declassify the CEP and IRC reports in 2018 or 2019,” Lim said.
“The very fact that Dr Mahathir had kept his silence on this issue is evident that there is realisation that he did wrong and betrayed the non-governmental organisations (NGO) and personalities who gave their views on institutional reforms to the CEP and IRC.
“Anwar’s unity government should not compound Dr Mahathir’s mistake by continuing to keep the CEP and IRC reports hidden under the OSA 1972,” he added.
Lom, said it is crucial to declassify the CEP and IRC reports by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's administration following yesterday’s move to remove the security classification on documents related to the June 6, 1976 Sabah plane crash.
The CEP was chaired by the former finance minister and Dr Mahathir's confidant Tun Daim Zainuddin. It was dismissed after PH’s first 100 days in government.
Meanwhile, the IRC was aimed at studying proposed institutional reforms that had been identified by the then-PH government in 2018.
Lim, who was the former Iskandar Puteri MP, said he welcomed the government’s decision to declassify the federal investigation report on the 1976 Sabah air crash report, or also known as the Double-Six Nomad Crash report, that killed 11 people, including the then Sabah chief minister Tun Fuad Stephens,
He added that there is simply no reason or justification to keep the report under the OSA 1972 for 47 years.
“Three reasons have been attributed to the possible cause of the Nomad aircraft crash which was aircraft overloading, pilot error or aircraft design flaw.
“It is hoped that the declassification of the investigation report 47 years ago will bring closure to the crash which killed not only the then Sabah chief minister, but also other state ministers at the time,” he said.
Lim said if it was not for the Double-Six Nomad aircraft crash, the history of Sabah might have taken a very different path.
At the same time, he also called for the lifting of the ban on Bernard Sta Maria’s book on Peter Mojuntin, titled The Golden Son of the Kadazan.
