KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 — Any national athletes unhappy with Ridhuan Tee Abdullah’s remark on their motivation in Rio 2016 can sue the controversial columnist, the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s (OCM) vice-president Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib has said.
Nazifuddin reportedly chided Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin lecturer for accusing athletes of being driven by financial rewards rather than patriotism, when the country’s athletes had made sacrifices for the nation.
“If there are any athletes who feel slighted by Ridhuan Tee’s statement, they can take legal action. I feel that he should not simply comment on the athlete’s spirit.
“As Malaysians, we should be proud with the achievements of our athletes on the world stage,” he was quoted saying yesterday by local daily Berita Harian’s weekend edition, Berita Minggu.
“Personally I am not satisfied if there are such negative thoughts because athletes have already fully sacrificed in their lives to carry the nation’s name,” he added.
Tee wrote in a column published by Sinar Harian on Monday questioning the apparent celebration of Datuk Lee Chong Wei’s performance at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games as well as the rewards that followed.
The columnist further wrote that the same attention was not given to athletes of other ethnicities, particular from the Malay community.
He had also claimed that sports these days is no longer about patriotism, alleging that it had become a business and a means to seek popularity and money instead.
Tee then claimed that “ultra kiasu” athletes were only interested in individual sports as they could reap more benefits as teams would have to share the rewards among all players, and blamed this for the decline in team-based sports here.
On Wednesday, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin reportedly rebuked Tee over his remarks which he said was “highly inaccurate” and an “insult to the athletes”, adding that it was better that the latter refrains from making any more of such statements.
