‘Adam went amok in Chow Kit due to problems at his workplace’

PETALING JAYA: The urban legend that Prebet Adam Jaafar had run amok in 1987 because his brother was killed by Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail has been refuted by the soldier’s family.

His younger sister, Hawa Jaafar, 53, apologised to the Johor royal family. Hawa said her family had to hold back their shame and anger for 30 years because they were unable to explain the truth to the public.

“Adam went amok in Chow Kit due to problems in his work place and not because our brother was killed by the Sultan.

“I apologise to the family of the Tunku Mahkota Johor (Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim) for being dragged into a slander involving my brother Prebet Adam.

“I want to clarify that there were no deaths involving our siblings due to murder. All of us are still alive and only one passed away in 1975 due to a fire. In the name of Allah, there was no murder at all,” she said at her house in George Town, Penang. .

Also present were two other siblings – Arina and Arman. Adam is the eldest of nine siblings.

Rumours went around back then that Adam’s brother was supposedly a golf caddy who had laughed when the Johor Ruler missed a shot.

The late Sultan had supposedly hit Adam’s brother on the head with a golf club and the caddy died.

On Oct 17, 1987, Adam, then a 23-year-old soldier, stole an M16 rifle and a motorcycle from his army camp in Ipoh.

He travelled to Kuala Lumpur at a time when political tension was high.

The next night, he wrote a message on his hotel room mirror: “A damned night for Adam. Mission: to kill or be killed.”

He left his hotel and went on a shooting spree in the city’s Chow Kit area that left one person dead from a bullet ricochet and several others wounded.

Adam shot at cars and at a petrol station fuel tank which burst into flames. He eventually surrendered and at his trial, his lawyer argued a defence of temporary insanity.

Meanwhile, Hawa said the family had never known any member of the Johor royal family and pleaded with the media to help tell the real story and to inform the Tunku Mahkota Johor of the family’s apology.

The Prebet Adam controversy resurfaced when Tunku Ismail, the Johor crown prince, shared his views on the country’s political situation in a post on the Johor Southern Tigers Facebook page on Sunday.

He touched on the story of Prebet Adam, saying that his late grandfather Almarhum Sultan Iskandar was not given a chance to defend himself as royalty did not have the luxury of the Internet, and the mainstream media was controlled by the government of the day.

The Prebet Adam urban legend was also debunked in a book published last May, titled Konfesi Prebet Adam.