Sports Minister: “I am not invalidating Pandelela’s sexual harassment experience”

Sexual harassment has been a hot topic for the last few weeks. One of the more notable people who have spoken up for it is Malaysian diver Pandelela Rinong who revealed that her former coach had cracked rape jokes which made her very uncomfortable. It is said that the coach will get in trouble every single year and seven years after, he had committed a rape case.

When asked about that incident at an anti-doping event which happened on 25 October, Minister of Youth and Sports, Faizal Azumu has asked why Pandelela suddenly brought up this case.

“I would like to understand the whole scenario on why Lela put out a statement on her social media account suddenly after so long?”

He elaborated that he has been contacting a few athletes to talk about this issue and will also be contacting the previous Minister of Youths and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin. According to Berita Harian, he continued on and said,

“Everyone of us, not only from the ministry, should be against these actions. Sexual jokes are a type of harassment, just as how something that is more severe is also a form of harassment. We need to be against that.”

Other than that, the minister has also urged athletes no matter what level to report to the authorities if they ever encounter sexual harassment.

“Don’t stay silent on this as it is a criminal offence that we need to battle together.”

Many, including Puchong MP, Gobind Singh, have something to say about his remarks as they believe that the minister should not question the victim for standing up no matter how long it has been.

Pandelela has tweeted and said that she brought the matter up for the purpose of giving awareness to the public.

“I shared my “not so nice” experience to give awareness to the public, and support for victims out there, who are always in dilemma, whether to speak up or stay silent. Most importantly, enabler and their backups shouldn’t be glamorised. Others may forget, but not the victim.”

Shortly after, the Minister of Sports tweeted as well with an attached video,

“I absolutely am not questioning Pandelela’s experience. What I said is that we need to know more about what happened. This is a very serious matter, we must ensure a safe environment for our athletes at all levels. Lela I’m with you.”

The Malaysian diver has said that after watching the conference, she now understood the whole scenario. She added, “Thank you for listening and willing to find out, hopefully, YB can help to support Malaysia Diving Team to be better in the future.”

We surely hope that the matter will be investigated thoroughly! Rape and any type of sexual harassment are certainly inexcusable. 

Also read: Datuk Pandelela Reveals How Former Coach Went From Making Sexual Jokes To Committing Rape