Activist blasts newspaper for ‘biased, demeaning’ report on Pandelela
MIRI: The report by a national newspaper that the country’s diving queen, Datuk Pandelela Renong, came back from Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games ‘empty handed’ is biased and demeaning to the nation’s athlete, said chairman of Persatuan Anak Sarawak Melaka, Dato Wan Zain Syed Modzar.
He said there were also other Malaysian athletes who did not bring home any medals but criticism seemed to be only targeting the Sarawakian athlete.
“As a Sarawakian, of course we are called to defend Datuk Pandalela as she has done her best but the performance of athletes from other countries was better during the competition,” he told The Borneo Post.
He said the newspaper should not have used such words, as though the diving queen did not make any contribution or achievement for the country before this.
“I hope the national newspaper apologise openly as the headline ‘Pandelela pulang tangan kosong’ (Pandelela returns emptyhanded) is like an insult that has hurt the feelings of Sarawakians,” he said.
The newspaper has since changed the headline of its online report to ‘Pandelela sudah beri terbaik’ (Pandelela gave her best).
Wan Zain added further that every athlete has their ups and downs, therefore all Malaysians must give them their continuous support to motivate them to remain competitive.
“Not all athletes can retain their good performance as they too have weaknesses and they can also make mistake.
“Just like Datuk Pandalela, she is not only working hard to retain her good performance, but she is also competing with other international-level athletes,” he said.
In this regard, he hoped all media practitioners in the country will be more fair and unbiased in their reporting in order not to touch on such sensitivity.
Earlier this week, the Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah had also expressed his displeasure over the initial headline of the report.
The minister felt that the headline seemed to insinuate that Pandelela was not as good as before.
“We should not treat athletes like sugarcane, useful when it’s still sweet and thrown away when it has been used to dregs. That is not the way we treat national athletes who have contributed a lot in the world of national sports before.
“We need to understand that in the world of sports, an athlete’s performance is uncertain. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down,” he said to explain his reaction.