Ridhuan Tee slammed over 'unpatriotic' Olympian comments
Published on: Thursday, September 01, 2016
PETALING JAYA: Controversial academician Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has come under fire for saying Malaysian Olympic medal winners are unpatriotic and only competing in sports for monetary rewards.MCA Youth secretary general Datuk Leong Kim Soon said that an article penned by Tee was intended to destroy the harmony and unity of Malaysians."Not only is he an utmost unpatriotic person, his personal subjective and narrow-minded thinking itself poses a problem," said Leong.ADVERTISEMENT In his column in a Malay language daily Ridhuan said that sports had become a business and also a means to gain popularitiy. He said that it is no longer for patriotism, which was only for show.He wrote that "ultra-kiasu (mercenary)" athletes compete for monetary rewards rather than for patriotic reasons and thus are driven towards individualistic sports, rather than sports which require teamwork.Ridhuan, a Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) lecturer, also urged for more diversity in Malaysian athletes.In response, Leong said sports transcended race and religion.ADVERTISEMENT "Malaysia's badminton exponents, who coincidentally are ethnic Chinese, united all Malaysians irrespective of race and religion during their semi-final and final matches at the Rio Olympics."Malaysians who were kept glued to their television sets cheering for our sportsmen and sportswomen, fully embodied the spirit of solidarity when our badminton players were presented with the precious medals," said Leong.
ADVERTISEMENT
The athletes' passion, skills and hard work were dismissed by Ridhuan, said Leong."Not only did he belittle the efforts and hard work of our Olympians, he insulted everyone across the nation," said Leong."It is wrong of Ridhuan Tee to single out the rewards to be presented to Datuk Lee Chong Wei when the Government had announced that it would award each medallist with an additional RM200,000 bonus on top of the existing incentive under the sports scheme," said Leong.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
Leong pointed out that the bonus will also be given to other Olympic medallists including badminton mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying (silver); men's doubles pair Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong (silver), divers Pendelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong (silver) and cyclist Azizulhasni Awang (bronze).He also noted that the Malaysian Government would be rewarding Paralympians who win a gold medal with RM1mil – a reward which equals that of able-bodied Olympic athletes.