Better to fire slacking ministers than axing 144 athletes, says MP

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PETALING JAYA: Instead of axing 144 athletes from the National Sports Council’s (NSC) training programme, the government should remove incompetent ministers and deputy ministers, an opposition MP said.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim, a former deputy youth and sports minister, said he had raised concerns over the lack of funding for the NSC’s training programme.

He said the ministry was only allocated RM17.5 million in 2020 for international sports championships such as the SEA Games in Vietnam, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and the Asian Games in Hangzhou this year.

This compared to RM75.5 million allocated in 2018.

In a statement today, Sim said that when he raised the matter in Parliament, its minister gave an assurance that athletes would not be neglected.

“Clearly, the minister had lied in Parliament when just a month after that, a total of 144 athletes were dropped from the national sports training programme,” he said, adding that some athletes claimed they were not consulted before the announcement.

He said it would be better to remove 10 ministers and deputy ministers to resolve the lack of funding issue.

“The salaries of the ministers and deputy ministers are more than enough to accommodate our athletes in their sports training programme,” he said.

Source: FMT