KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — An electronic sports association has criticised Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, for refusing to its request to meet even as the youth and sports minister recently gave audience to an upstart company and Orange E-sports.
In a statement, Esports Kuala Lumpur Association (ESKL) also alleged that they were stopped by the minister’s special officer from presenting its e-sports development plan.
“Since Esports Malaysia Association (ESM) went through a change in its administration structure and kicked out corrupt leaders and committee members, Syed Saddiq has never given his face and accepted our request to meet, including by ESKL.
“All the requests and invitations we made, it was as if they were trashed,” its president Hisham Darus said.
Malay Mail has contacted Syed Saddiq’s office to verify ESKL’s allegation.
Hisham also urged Syed Saddiq to detail his plan, after Putrajaya announced earlier this month in the Budget a RM20 million allocation to develop the local e-sports industry in 2020.
“We at ESKL are waiting for Syed Saddiq’s office to open its doors to meet us, like how it was so easy for e-sports stakeholder companies to get a time to meet the minister,” he added.
Hisham said his statement was in response to Syed Saddiq’s “denying meeting allegedly transgender owner” of Cleo International Sdn Bhd.
The “transgender” label was one of the many derogatory allegations against Cleo International director Nur Fathiah Syazwana Shaharuddin, 25, who led the delegation with Esports Business Network Sdn Bhd (EBN), the owner of Orange E-sports.
Hisham later explained to Malay Mail that he was citing Syed Saddiq over the “transgender” label, and was not making the accusation himself.
Despite that, Syed Saddiq had not denied meeting Nur Fathiah nor any “transgender owner”, but instead defended her and her gender identity yesterday against such accusation, saying the woman is “a mother of two”.
Yesterday, EBN told Malay Mail it attended the meeting after it was contacted by Cleo International to pitch for “a holistic youth driven initiative that included e-sports other core youth development pillars.”
Malay Mail has contacted Nur Fathiah at her social media account to request for comments on the meeting with the ministry.
