In their latest badminton battle, which took place at the French Open between Indonesian duo Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma-Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi and Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan, Indonesian coach Eng Hian, was on hand to give his court side instructions, objectifying our national shuttlers as “black and white”.
The match break, which was broadcasted on television, has made its rounds and gained significant backlash from Malaysians. Here is a video of the incident.
Unimpressed, netizens were less than friendly with the coach from then on.
“For Malaysians, colour is a very sensitive issue. Are we demanding the coach to apologise? Naaah. We don’t ask for it, but if they are willing, they should do it out of good faith.”
And that’s what the coach did.
In his video, he said that he had no intention of offending the duo with his courtside remarks.
“I apologise to Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah. I have no intention to offend the Malaysian players.”
“Once again, I apologise for my words from the bottom of my heart.”
The remark went viral on social media after it was captured on television during French Open’s round of 16 last Thursday.
