Poor SEA Games outing: Yeoh defends 'political instability' comment

PARLIAMENT | Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has defended her statement that identified "political instability" as a factor for the poor performance of Malaysian athletes at the recent Phnom Penh SEA Games 2023.

Responding to Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PN-Pasir Mas), Yeoh said she had expected the question to be raised in the Dewan Rakyat today and as such was prepared with an answer.

"I'm prepared because every time I speak, I come from a legal background and so I will ensure that when I speak, I have the facts to back it up," said Yeoh.

Ahmad Fadhli in a supplementary question during Minister's Question Time this morning cited Yeoh's remarks at her recent press conference where she reviewed Malaysia’s worst-ever performance in the biennial games, saying that Malaysian sports has suffered the impact of political instability in the five years leading up to the 15th general election.

The former PAS Youth chief had named Kenya, Cuba, and Palestine as among countries with known political instabilities but recorded better performance in certain sports.

"The countries that you mentioned are not among the contestants in the SEA Games," Yeoh (above) pointed out.

She further said former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who took office in 2013, had 61 months to prepare Malaysian athletes for the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games 2017 and eventually emerged as overall champions with 145 gold medals, 91 silver, and 85 bronze.

This was in comparison to his three successors - Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Reezal Merican Naina Merican, and Ahmad Faizal Azumu - in the four years between 2018 and 2022, leading up to her own current appointment.

"Syed Saddiq had 20 months, Reezal had 18 months and Faizal had 16 months.

"In four years there were three changes of ministers and every time we change the minister, there will be changes of board members, budget, and sporting focus," she said.

No dedicated budget

Yeoh cited an example of how the budget for the Podium athletes' training programme carried out in 2021 was not included in Budget 2022 after a change of administration and this had forced the National Sports Council to change its preparations for major sporting events that year.

"As a result, 220 athletes were not able to continue their training because there was no dedicated budget under the Podium programme for SEA Games training.

"The NSC also had to use its own budget to ensure athletes' allowances and coaches' salaries could be paid on time and ensure it would not impact their performance," she said.

She added it would be unfair to lay all the blame on the NSC without acknowledging the impact of political instability as a contributing factor.

Malaysia could only manage a seventh-place finish in the recently concluded SEA Games with 34 gold, 45 silver, and 97 bronze, its worst in the history of the Games since 1959, and failed to achieve the set target of 40-37-64.

Vietnam retained the title of overall champion with 136-105-118 while hosts Cambodia recorded its best showing with a fourth-place finish of 81-74-127.

Sports should be kept away from politics, says Yeoh

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