Youthful Malaysia minister Syed Saddiq uses world-class debating skills to silence critics of Israel athlete ban
- The 26-year-old three-time Asian debating champion comes out fighting, refusing to flinch in the face of a global backlash
Syed Saddiq has debated Asia’s best speakers and has come out on top three times. Now, he is taking on the world, using those same oratory skills to stand up for his country as they face a global backlash for a ban on Israeli athletes.
Malaysia’s boyish youth and sports minister, who recently spoke at the South China Morning Post’s “Asia Matters” conference in Hong Kong, has become the face of the government’s hardened stance to refuse visas to Israeli athletes wanting to compete in the World Para Swimming Championships in the Borneo state of Sarawak in July.
Neither Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad nor Saddiq is worried. And with Mahathir allowing his top sports official to fight the global PR battle, the 26-year-old three-time Asian debating champion has gone on the attack, showing little tolerance or sympathy for accusations of mixing politics with sport.
BBC current affairs questions and answer programme Hard Talk, which is renowned for trying to intimidate guests by cutting off cogent answers mid-sentence, felt the fury of a baby-faced Saddiq when they asked why he would deny Malaysia’s athletes the chance to compete against world-class opposition.
“If hosting an international event is more important than safeguarding the interests of our Palestinian brothers and sisters from being mutilated time after time, if that is more important, that means we have lost our moral conscience and moral compass,” he replied, twice preventing host Shaun Ley from interrupting.
“Malaysia is not like other countries. When countries criticise Israel and censure them in the United Nations ... the US will veto it [and they have done so] more than 47 times. On top of that, when we censure Israel, US and the Western world will actually punish these small countries for having a stance. Donald Trump cut more than US$200 million of development aid which would save 5 million Palestinians.”
Later, when Ley asked ironically if this was the progressive, new Malaysia the eight-month-old government was flaunting, Saddiq replied: “It is progressive. We stand for the rule of law, we are against human rights violations, we are against war crimes and crimes of aggression, that is the new Malaysia.”
Israel continues to build settlements on Palestinian lands, despite it being against international law, and dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli sniper fire on the Gaza strip border during protests to demand basic human rights.
One social media user praised Saddiq’s Hard Talk performance, writing: “Malaysia is blessed to have a young talent like him. Not even Singapore would want to take a risk to have a young MP around the same age as him. He is able to answer all the questions with confidence and dignity.”
Kizierowski, meanwhile, told Channel News Asia, that he declined a “very attractive coaching position” because of “recent statements made by Malaysian politicians regarding the refusal of visas for athletes”.
“There is no place for that in sport,” he wrote on social media.
Israel had condemned the ban on its athletes as “shameful” and praised the IPC after it took the championship away from Malaysia.
“All world championships must be open to all eligible athletes and nations to compete safely and free from discrimination,” said IPC president Andrew Parsons.
“When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new championships host.”
Saddiq’s BBC performance was relatively sedate compared with his fiery riposte to Israel when they initially slammed Malaysia for banning their athletes and accusing Mahathir of “politicising sport”.
He released a statement calling Israel the “biggest hypocrite in their condemnation of Malaysia”, adding that its “attempt to play the ‘victim card’ is “pathetic and despicable” and pointed to instances when the Israeli government prevented Palestinian athletes from competition.
Said Saddiq: “Has hypocrite Israel forgotten the ban placed by them on Gaza’s Ittihad Al-Shejaiya football team from crossing into the West Bank to play the final match of the Palestine football cup? Isn’t that politicising sports?
“Has hypocrite Israel forgotten how they illegally control which Palestinian athletes can leave their homeland for training or tournaments? Isn’t that politicising sports?
“Has hypocrite Israel forgotten how they illegally appointed themselves as the ‘guardians’ of Palestine by deciding who can and cannot play against Palestinian athletes in their very own country? Isn’t that politicising sports?
“Heck, has hypocrite Israel forgotten how they pressured the US National Basketball Association (NBA) to preclude Palestine from its list in 2018? Sadly, NBA bowed down to the despicable sports minister of Israel.
“Where was the self-righteous, victim-playing, hypocrite Israel then?” he asked.
