ONE of the key things I want to do before I complete my term as the Youth and Sports Minister is to place the right people in the right positions.

Some positions are:

I do not have power to remove those elected by others. That is done through a democratic process and we must respect that. I can only remove those I appoint.

In my short time as Minister, I have appointed a lot of key former athletes to help me. It is my belief that former athletes understand sports and the needs of athletes.

In the Road to Gold (RTG) committee I have three key former athletes to assist me - Datuk Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia’s most distinguished shuttler), Datuk Nicol David (Malaysia’s squash queen) and Mirnawan Nawawi (former skipper of Malaysia’s hockey team).

In Majlis Sukan Negara Malaysia (National Sports Council), I have Olympian Suriaghandi Suppiah (former national hockey player) and Chong Wei to assist me.

At the Institut Sukan Negara Malaysia (National Sports Institute), I have Datuk Marina Chin (former Malaysian track queen) and Nicol to assist me.

In the National Athletes Welfare Foundation (YAKEB), I have Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (former national gymnast), Jeffrey Ong (former national swimmer) and Soo Beng Kiang (former national shuttler) to assist me.

In the Safe Sports Committee, I have appointed Nurul Huda Abdullah (former national swimmer) to chair it.

And then I have sports administrators like Datuk Seri Windsor John of Asian Football Confederation in the Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC) and Datuk Stuart Ramalingam as the RTG programme project coordinator.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics, I managed to spend a lot of time with Nicol who had done a brilliant job supporting our athletes in her capacity as our deputy chef de mission. She did it so convincingly well.

It is my hope that she will continue to assist me in nation building through sports development.

I want my legacy to be about empowering our former athletes to help current and future athletes because they know the needs and they understand. - Aug 12, 2024

Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh is Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister. The opinion expressed above is adapted from her latest Facebook post. 

https://focusmalaysia.my/ex-national-athletes-know-best-hannah-yeoh-is-grooming-them-to-take-charge-of-sports-agencies/