KOTA KINABALU – The federal government should officially and immediately ask its Australian counterpart to release their full report on the Double Six air crash, said former chief minister Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee.
Following the cabinet’s decision to declassify the report, Yong said the reason the Australian National Archives withheld the publication of the full report was that the “release of the information could reasonably be expected to cause damage to the international relations of the Commonwealth”.
“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 here today.
The Australian National Archives titled the report “Accident Malaysia Nomad Aircraft 9M-ATZ on June 6, 1976”.
According to him, the Australian National Archives have stated that their “records contain technical detail…which could impact on the Commonwealth’s (Australia’s) relations with the current government of a foreign country” in a reply to his representative dated March 14, 2021.
He noted that the “foreign country” refers to Malaysia.
Yong said both Malaysia and Australia reports must be published in full, adding that the Australian National Archives had noted that “certain parts of the text have been expunged”.
“The replies from the Australian archives disclosed that a total of 110 folios are withheld from publication, with each folio containing more than one page.
“Only the release of the full reports, by both Malaysia and Australia, can bring closure to this extremely painful chapter of Sabah’s history,” he said.
The Vibes previously noted the Australian expert report which has been declassified in Australia but restricted from release in Malaysia. – The Vibes, April 6, 2023
