KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s assertion that he met billionaire Tan Sri Vincent Tan to promote youth-related products and issues has been corroborated by the latter’s son.

In an Instagram story, Morvin Tan said he was in the meeting where the minister raised the topics of sports, youth, and local products.

“I was present in that meeting and can verify that YB Syed Saddiq did meet my father TSVT and the sole purpose of that discussion was sports, youth, and local products.

“He wanted to promote all three, and asked my father to get 7/11 to showcase more local products,” Tan wrote.

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Tan, who is also the chief operating officer of Berjaya Times Square, said his father was receptive on all three fronts and had pledged to discuss these further with the team handling the convenience store chain.

The junior Tan also added that it was unfair to criticise Syed Saddiq without knowledge of the full facts.

Founder of local brand Hausboom, Azri Zahier Azmi, had openly attacked Syed Saddiq by accusing the Muar MP of not delivering his pledge to promote the soft drink and introducing its profile to the Cabinet.

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Syed Saddiq responded by saying he not only brought the product to Tan’s attention but even made it a point of taking it into a Cabinet meeting, posting a photograph as evidence.

The minister, who heads PPBM’s youth wing, appeared to take serious offence with the criticism and said he felt likened to a pig, an animal that is inordinately taboo with the Malay community.