Remembering Double Six (Part 4)

A Nomad aircraft similar to the one that crashed on 6-6-1976. (Should it be called Triple Six instead of Double Six?)

A night view of the Double Six Monument. Picture courtesy of Alam Maya.(With due respect to him, his caption was wrong. Only 3, and not 6, other Ministers apart from Stephens were killed. Perhaps he was too absorbed with the figure 6.)

My postings on Remembering Double Six was supposed to have ended with Part 3 which I uploaded last Friday 6 June 2008. However, a visitor's questions prompted me to write a Part 4.

My friend's questions, related to the first Remembering Double Six posting, were 1) Do you have records of who contested in the by-elections (held following the deaths of the 5 Assemblymen killed in the crash) and the detailed results?, and 2) Who were the 2 Usno Assemblymen who crossed over? (to Berjaya party led by Datuk Harris Salleh who succeeded the late Tun Fuad Stephens as Chief Minister.)

I do not have detailed answers to these questions. I'll have to go to the archives to get that. At 54, I can no longer remember as well as when I was 44, let alone 34. I can only remember that Berjaya won all 5 by-elections. Still, while waiting for that trip to the archives, I will try here to answer those questions strictly based on my memory.

However, instead of answering my friend via e-mail, I have decided to answer here for the benefit of others who might also be interested.

Answer to Q 1: I can't remember who else contested but as I said in my recent posting Stephens was replaced as Kiulu Assemblyman by his wife Toh Puan Hajjah Rahimah who served 2 terms until she was defeated in 1985. She also held the record as the first woman Minister in the Sabah State Cabinet.

The late Datuk Salleh Sulong was replaced as Papar Assemblyman by Berjaya founder member and secretary-general Datuk Haji Mohd Noor Mansoor who also succeeded him as Finance Minister of Sabah. The former senior civil servant was held under the Internal Security Act (ISA) just before the April 1976 election which saw the 9-month-old Berjaya defeat the Usno-led Sabah Alliance Party. The law-degree holder was released just in time for the by-election. However, in the 1981 election, he moved to Tempasuk in his hometown Kota Belud and won.

Before entering business and politics, Matnoor (as he was fondly referred to) was Director of the then Establishment Office (now the State Public Service Department) in the Chief Minister's Department, a senior and powerful position in the civil service. He was however unceremoniously given a 24-hour sacking by the then Chairman of the State Public Services Commission, Datuk Haji Abdul Hamid for alleged misuse of power. Hamid was the father of Datuk Dzulkifli, who rose from a district officer to Under Secretary to the Chief Minister and finally Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister without even contesting in an election under the Tun Mustapha government. The rivalry between Matnoor and Dzul (as he was referred to) started when the duo began to compete the Deputy Presidency of the powerful Sabah National Youth Association (SANYA) and to vie for the attention of then Chief Minister Tun Mustapha who happened to be SANYA President. To understand better the rivalry between the two and what happened next, please refer to my postings in July last year as well as my writings over the next few weeks. Will Matnoor eventually be able to extract sweet revenge from Dzul? Come back to this site again!

The late Datuk Peter Mojuntin, dubbed the 'Golden Son of the Kadazans' by the late DAP MP V. David, was replaced as Moyog Assemblyman by his brother Datuk Conrad Mojuntin. However, the younger Mojuntin was only made an Assistant Minister (of Finance, if I'm not mistaken) after the by-election. He eventually became a full Minister (of Culture, Youth and Sports) just before the fall of the Berjaya government in 1985. For the record, another brother of Peter, George, had a brief spell as Matunggong Assemblyman during the Berjaya rule. (Some 32 years later today, the senior Mojuntin's son, Donald, himself becomes Moyog Assemblyman, thus making it full-cycle and coming of age of the 2nd generation politician.)

The late Datuk Chong Than Vun was replaced as Api-Api Assemblyman and Minister of Communication and Works by Datuk Lim Guan Sing, now a practising lawyer. Lim retained his constituency in 1981 but lost it to PBS in 1985 just like many of his party colleagues. Prior to becoming a Minister, the Political Science degree holder was the first Deputy Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly under the new Berjaya government. He was said to be close to Chief Minister Datuk Harris Salleh and was rumoured to be in the latter's 'Kitchen Cabinet' which made important decisions affecting Sabah and Berjaya even after the party's defeat that fateful night in April 1985.

I am not too sure who replaced the late Datuk Darius Binion as Assemblyman or for that matter which constituency. If I'm not mistaken, it was Datuk Mathew Gonzaga and the constituency was Tanjung Aru (later renamed Sembulan). Until I get hold of the archives, I welcome your inputs on this one.

As for the 2nd question, well, I can only remember the name of one but I'm sure more than one Usno Assemblyman crossed over to Berjaya prior to the 1981 election. He was Datuk Haji Thaufeck Hj Asneh of Beaufort who also ever served as MP for the same district. At that time, the State Legislative Assembly was housed in the old Residency of the British Governor where the new State Museum now stands. Thaufeck, son of influential Beaufort community leader Haji Asneh, literally crossed the floor, carrying his name plate with him, in the middle of an Assembly sitting. This prompted then Opposition leader Dzulkifli of Usno (yes, the same Dzul as above) to remark: "Lari-lari lah, bukan rakyat yang lari, cuma Wakil Rakyat." (Cross, cross lah. It's not the people crossing over but only the People's Representative.) By then Dzul's 'best friend' Matnoor had become Finance Minister, a post held by Dzul himself just before Usno lost to Berjaya in the 1976 election. You get the picture.

Well, folks, that's all for today. To learn more, you will have to wait till I'm free to go to the archives. And as for my friend who posed the questions, I hope I have answered them, at least partially. Thank you.