Seven years after his death, Sabah’s most hated man has come to haunt
Syed Kechik Syed Mohamed (picture) was Sabah’s most hated man. So much so that the now defunct Parti Berjaya made his expulsion from Sabah as one of its election promises. It swept to power in 1976, ending Mustapha Harun’s nine years of iron-clad rule which was mostly blamed on Syed Kechik. He died in 2009 at the age of 81. He was Mustapha’s right hand man; but many saw him as Sabah’s de facto chief minister. The courts then forestalled his expulsion. But for three days starting tomorrow (Aug 22) the high court in Kota Kinabalu will hear a libel suit brought by former chief minister Harris Salleh over allegations in a book, “Vendetta and Abuse of Power”, that he had abused his power and was vindictive in seizing Syed Kechik’s properties.
Harris, who succeeded the late Fuad (Donald) Stephens, took back Syed Kechik’s vast timber concession. But what broke the heart of the peninsular Malaysian lawyer from Kedah state was that the Sabah government seized about 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of prime land owned by his Zara property company. Zara is his eldest daughter’s name. She is married to his nephew Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary – Malaysia’s richest Malay.
Syed Kechik never got over the loss of this piece of land on which is now Sabah’s first university. He was taken in by its stunning bird’s eye view while on a flight.
His bitterness grew as litigation took 20 years before a judge ordered the Sabah government to compensate his Zara Sendirian Berhad with 40 million ringgit.
There was no love lost between Harris and Syed Kechik. By his own admission, Harris resigned twice from the Sabah cabinet, firstly as finance minister and then as industrial development minister, because of Syed Kechik.
Harris is suing Shaari Isa, the author of “Vendetta and Abuse of Power”, Syed Salem, the younger brother of Syed Kechik, whom Harris says is the source of allegations against him in the book, and the MPH Group for publishing it in 2014.
Sabah Insights 