PETALING JAYA: Social media users have been urged not to sensationalise the plight of former para swimming champion Koh Lee Peng, who sells tissue and tissue pouches on the streets of Kuala Lumpur.
Ahmad Shapawi Ismail, director-general of the National Sports Council, said Lee Peng had rejected efforts to help her and preferred to be self-reliant.
Lee Peng, who was interviewed by FMT in January on the streets of Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, was featured recently in a video posted on Instagram by a well-known Muslim preacher.
The video was widely-shared, prompting Shapawi to remind social media users that the government was not neglecting Lee Peng’s plight.
He said they had previously made an offer to enter her in an entrepreneurial programme specially for former athletes, Bernama reported.
However, she did not want to budge from her stand of being self-reliant and to use her wheelchair to get around and sell items and tissue paper, adding that the door was always open to her.
Lee Peng’s issue once again went viral after the preacher uploaded a video of him meeting the former seven-time gold medal winner on Instagram recently.
The chairman of the National Athletes’ Welfare Foundation, Noorul Ariffin Abdul Majeed, has also urged all parties not to exploit the issue for their personal agenda.
He said the foundation, the sports ministry, the NSC and other agencies were ready to assist Lee Peng.
“Don’t tarnish the good reputation and name of national athletes for personal or political gain. It will spark a negative perception that can cause public confusion and result in a lack of support for national athletes,” he added.
In January, Paralympic Council of Malaysia president Megat Shahriman Zaharudin was quoted as saying: “I am truly amazed by her, and the choices that she has made are clear. I totally understand that she wants to be independent as an entrepreneur.”
Lee Peng represented Malaysia at the Asean Para Games between 2001 and 2005, winning a total of seven gold and three silver medals. In 2016, she was named Female Paralympian of the Year in her home state Penang. - FMT
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