KUCHING: The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development will ensure the crisis in the Sarawak Badminton Association (SBA) does not affect preparations of the state badminton team ahead of Sukma 2024.
Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah assured that he would continue to monitor, look after the welfare of the athletes and will not allow anyone to create problems that could affect the state’s participation for the bi-annual games.
“The SBA crisis will not have a direct impact because what is happening is an internal problem of the association. This issue is common, and some even go to court such as wushu, swimming and so on.
“So as the minister responsible for taking care of sports, I will not let this problem interfere with preparations. We will still send the badminton team to the Sukma Games,” he affirmed.
He said this when met by the media after he attended a courtesy visit to Borneo Cultures Museum accompanying Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar and his wife, Toh Puan Fauziah Mohd Sanusi on Saturday.
He was responding to SBA’s statement on Friday, which stated that Nathan Laing Sim was reinstated as the president, following the ruling by the High Court in favour of eight applicants in a judicial review against the Sports Commissioner Sarawak Region, Minister of Youth and Sports Malaysia and three office-bearers of the SBA.
The court ruled that the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held on the Sept 18, 2021, and the annual general meeting (AGM) held on Oct 3, 2021, are valid and therefore, the ruling effectively reinstated the leadership of Nathan as SBA president, Johnny Ng as secretary and Robert Lau as treasurer, while also reinstating the memberships of seven affiliate members.
“Personally I see this is about someone who wants to take over the association, hence, they hold EGM, AGM and so on. And those who are not satisfied take it to court,” said Abdul Karim.
“It does not involve us at all because the SBA is registered under the Sports Commission.
“I do not favour anyone, but anyone can establish a new association and I will continue to look after our players as it is. Nevertheless, I have my contingency plan,” he said.
