“FAM was not a party (to the document forgery).”

- FAM’s Geneva-based legal counsel Serge Vittoz

“(The seven heritage footballers) have enough Bahasa Malaysia knowledge, or as described by Jerlun (MP Abdul Ghani Ahmad), sufficient. Meaning that they can understand what we say.”

– Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail

COMMENT | What is fascinating about the “heritage” players fiasco is that it exposes how the Madani state deals with two important issues.

Mind you, these are legacy issues, but the fact that they are legacies which Madani unashamedly embraces reminds those of us who voted for this unity government that things are going to get much worse.

The first issue deals with the defence of the realm. The forged documents the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) sent to the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa), which were endorsed and defended by the home minister, demonstrate that Madani continues to enable elements in the government or factotums within various bodies to jeopardise national security.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh desperately wants the federal government to remain out of this debacle, because this would be an...