BANGI – The Minister of Youth and Sports, Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu has called several athletes and met them on the sexual harassment allegation by national platform diver, Datuk Pandelela Rinong.
“I’ve met several athletes on that and it is inappropriate for me to talk about that now. I just wanted to understand about the whole scenario, why it took so long for Lela (Pandalela) to issue the statement via her social media,” he said during the National Anti-Doping Seminar 2021 today.
Last Thursday, the national sports was shocked by the revelation by Pandalela that she was a victim of bully by a coach after she reprimanded him for frequently making lewd jokes.
The Rio Olympics 2016 silver medalist said that she merely kept mum or fake a laugh whenever the coach made dirty jokes.
Elaborating further, Ahmad Faizal said that he would meet the former Minister of Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar to get information about the matter.
“I would also like to contact my peer, the former Minister of KBS, Khairy Jamaluddin. I believe that he has his opinion and information about the incident. Not just the KBS but all of us should not condone such act,” he added.
Khairy also replied to the Twit made by Pandalela, reviewing the criticisms of several sports journalists who slammed the Ministry of Youth and Sports for restructuring the platform diving coach team during the issue.
“Thank you Lela for highlighting the issue. I would make the same decision at all time,” Khairy twitted.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Faizal said that the KBS will go ahead with Sukan Malaysia (Sukma) 2020 that is scheduled to take place in Johor.
“We haven’t decided on that but we will discuss with the Johor government and get ready to carry out at the federal level if that is needed. Sukma will happen next year. Our athletes have trained hard during the pandemic and we need to be fair to them,” he said.
Sukma 2020 was postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic during the Fourth Johor State Assembly. -MalaysiaGazette
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