Syed Saddiq: Standing up against war crimes more important
Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman remains unapologetic on Malaysia's ban on Israeli athletes, even after the country lost the right to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.
"If hosting an international sporting event is more important than standing up for our Palestinian brothers and sisters who get murdered, maimed and tortured by the Netanyahu regime (in Israel), that means Malaysia has truly lost its moral compass.
"We would like to kindly remind the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) that even Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the Netanyahu government is an active perpetrator of war crimes," Syed Saddiq said in a statement tonight.
Malaysia lost the right to host the para swimming championships earlier today.
The championships, a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, had been scheduled for Kuching between July 29 and Aug 4.
"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," IPC president Andrew Parsons said in a statement.
Syed Saddiq said there would be no compromise on Malaysia's stance.
"Malaysia stands firmly with our decision on the ground of humanity and compassion for the Palestinian plight. We will not compromise," he said.
B. S.
It's time for an end to this idiocy too! Or else: also ban Myanmar over the Rohingyas, China over the Uighurs -- and just about everybody else too. For something. The only purpose this special/exceptional banning serves is to give expression to Malaysia's "Malay insufficient Islamic legitimacy-recognition anxiety". It's just a way of saying to the Arabs: we may not be Arabs, speak Arabic, live our lives in the sacred language of the Prophet and his Quran -- but we can show you how to be tough, we are tougher than you all and can "show you up", on the Jews and their Israel. It is infantile. It's about time people here understood and saw through their own underlying motivation -- its driving forces and animating anxieties -- in this pathetic charade.
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