Hannah Yeoh: Political Instability May Have Affected M’sia’s Sports Performance & Development

Recently, team Malaysia concluded the Phnom Penh SEA Games campaign with 34 gold, 45 silver and 96 bronze medals, falling short of the 40 gold target that had been set for them.

Malaysia also finished the competition in seventh position out of 11 nations in the medal table, the lowest we have ever placed in the history of the competition.

Despite all the criticisms thrown towards the authorities and the athlete themselves, in a press conference recently. Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh has since refuted such claims that this was the nation’s worst ever performance at the SEA Games.

She highlighted the fact that 63% of the contingent was comprised of young Under-23 athletes with 423 athletes competing at the Sea Games for the first time.

Meanwhile, Yeoh in a press conference, explained how she believes that Malaysian sports has become a victim of the political instability the nation has gone through over the last five years.

“I have to say this. Apart from the economy, the political instability over the past five years (has affected sports). We can see this now, sports has become one of the most glaring outcomes of this instability. It has (subsequently) caused this (poor performance).”

“This is why the Agong’s call for a period of stability over the next five years is so important. This is to allow us to get to work and produce results. Before this, we had ministers who came in and were only (in office) for less than a year,” she added.

“They had no time to follow through on their budgets and implement any strategies. They were changed before they even got their budgets. They did not have enough time to conduct post mortems (for previous games). New ministers were brought in and with them came a change in direction,” said Yeoh.

“There is a direct co-relation to the frequent change of Ministers as a result of Sheraton Move. There were change of policies and areas of focus. All these were examples of how the constant change of Ministers as a result of the political instability last term have affected sports development and ultimately sports performance.”

Do you agree with her statements? Let us know in the comments section.

Also read: Shahmalarani & Prem Kumar Are M’sia’s First Two Gold Medalists In SEA Games 2023