Minister: Criticism of Pandelela by MAS official uncalled for
KUCHING: Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has come to the defence of national diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong following criticism from a Malaysia Aquatics (MAS) official.
The Sarawak Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Minister expressed his disappointment with MAS secretary-general Andy Low for allegedly belittling Pandelela by saying that she had given many excuses after failing to qualify for this year’s Paris Olympics.
“Talking about the person who has contributed to the country and saying sarcastic remarks such as they (athletes) only linger on for their salary, is like praising them when they’re performing well, and criticising them when they don’t do well.
“I find it distasteful. I also don’t really know this Andy Low. There’s no need for officers like Low to belittle the athletes, especially from Sarawak.
“Who is this Andy Low? Has he represented Malaysia? Has he been a sportsman?” said Abdul Karim in a press conference at his office here yesterday.
He went on to question MAS’s efforts in grooming successors for the sport, pointing out that the fact Pandelela has been around for over the past 10 years “means MAS has not been doing anything”.
“What have you (Low) been doing for the last 10 years? How many years have you been the secretary? I am questioning MAS. For now, you’re criticising athletes who contributed to the country.
“I want to ask MAS, especially Andy, what have you done in trying to groom the people to continue in the sports of diving?”
Abdul Karim went on to assert that MAS had been relying solely on Pandelela throughout the years, and called for broader development of the sport.
“There needs to be a reformation, especially in national sports. In the last Sukan Malaysia (Sukma) in 2021, there were no women in diving sports.
“How do you expect athletes to be produced when even in the national sports, there no women divers? What went wrong?”
On Tuesday, two-time Olympic medallist Pandelela stated on social media that she would ‘take the good with the bad’ from the Doha championships to progress in her career.
Her post appeared to be in response to an article quoting Low who, without naming names, had accused “these individuals” of not being professional and
“when they fall, they give excuses, blaming others left and right”.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said he would leave it to Pandelela in regards to continuing her career as an athlete. “Personally, if she is still enthusiastic about the sport and wants to be involved competitively, whether it is for the Olympics or the Asian or SEA games, if she still wants to, we cannot stop her,” he said.
Abdul Karim had recently said that Sarawak was open to the possibility of Pandelela serving as the state’s diving coach in the future or in any other capacity of her choice.