PETALING JAYA, May 21 — Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman assured national athletes today that he will personally speak to the Sports Ministry about their unpaid allowances.

Syed Saddiq, who said he received the alerts through social media, stated that the athletes haven’t received their allowances for up to five months, forcing some of them to retire. 

“I have been in contact with them. Six of them have spoken up, but apparently, from what I received, it could be more. In fact the whole batch,” he said to Mailsport.

“I’m currently gathering evidence and documents from the athletes who have stood up. I will go to the Sports Ministry by tomorrow or as soon as possible once I get complete details.” 

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The athletes had previous taken to social media to air their grouses against former Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and the National Sports Council (NSC).

“Although this is not even my ‘case’ to handle as I’m not in the ministry, I’m here to help them,” added Syed Saddiq.

“This is grave injustice to the athletes. These athletes have served the nation... they are not getting what they deserve.” 

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He has also asked the other athletes to come forward and voice out their grievances as he felt it is time to make NSC accountable. 

Yesterday, former national gymnast and SEA Games gold medallist Nur Eli Ellina Azmi, in an Instagram post, accused the person known as ‘Abah’ of not looking after the welfare of the athletes during his tenure.

Khairy is said to be known as ‘Abah’ among athletes. 

She also added that the majority of the athletes had to work full time after not receiving allowances for five months. 

“I just sought justice. I retired because of the situation,” said the 2017 KL SEA Games gold medallist yesterday.

Eli revealed she didn’t delete the post despite a request from NSC director general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail.  

NSC later issued a statement that there was no national team for two months after the KL Sea Games between September and October. 

A re-selection was conducted jointly by NSC and the Malaysian Gymnastics Federation (MGF) where new criteria were announced towards identifying new members of the national teams preparing for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games (in April) and the Asian Games in Indonesia (in August) this year. 

According to NSC, Eli’s name was not included by the national body.

“She had written to us on the justification and criteria of her omission on Dec 11, 2017 and we had already explained the situation in detail in a reply on Jan 10, 2018 besides meeting her personally,” said NSC in a statement yesterday. 

“Eli then decided to write in on Feb 2, stating that she is retiring.”