Deputy Sports Minister Razali Ibrahim blamed opposition leaders for the bad reception given Malaysian teams by Indonesian sports fans at the ongoing SEA Games in Jakarta.
"
Why is it that they reserve such hatred for us? Why not Thailand? Why not others? It is not because of the perceived maltreatment of Indonesians locally.
"In my opinion, it is because opposition leaders have been making a beeline for Indonesia to bad mouth our country.
"They say bad things about Malaysia, such as the word maling, Indonesian for thief, is used," said Razali (left) while winding up for his ministry during the ongoing Supply Bill 2012 debate in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He argued that such misconduct of errant opposition leaders, even if it only affects 10 percent of Indonesians, will result in Malaysia being vilified.
"It is easy to grow up hating a country that has been vilified, for example we all grew up hating Soviet Russia (for atrocities duriing the Communist era)," Razali warned.
Malaysia faces Indonesia in the SEA Games football finals tonight and the Tigers are worried about security arrangements.
Botched medal ceremony
On a related matter, the Muar MP blamed the SEA Games organisers for the bungle that saw Malaysia's 400m relay quartet, who won the gold, missing the medal award ceremony.
"Their award ceremony was postponed almost 24 hours after the final event was over. No reason was given by organisers.
"We are looking at this matter seriously, as medal award ceremonies are never postponed like that," explained Razali.
He said issue was not about money but that the ministry was not aware of the delay and was unable to assist in ensuring that the athletes were able to receive their due honours.
"It is not professional for me to comment on their perceived shortcomings, but regardless, there are (adverse) effects (to us)," Razali concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.