Cabinet or Badminton? Zafrul can’t have his cake and eat it too

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, CABINET MINISTERS ARE NO SUPERHEROES …

KL 8 Nov: The blog called nuclearmanbursa is saying what’s on the minds of many: why is the leadership of BAM, the main body for the country’s badminton, being passed from one politician to another as if it’s the birthright of politicians and only politicians to head BAM?

I’m reproducing nuclearmanbursa’s entire posting here because Netizens can no longer assess his blog. The MCMC, the institution that regulates blogs and social media in this country, recently decided to block nuclearmanbursa for reasons best known to themselves. Something for another posting another day. 

For now, here is the full nuclearmanbursa’s article on the boarding of positions in the Badminton Association of Malaysian. (I have dropped the last para of his posting to protect myself against potential lawsuits). 

Of course I’ve got something mroe to say about this, immediately below this posting.

Monday, 6 November 2023

Badminton Association of Malaysia, the house of un electable politicians

BACK in early 2023, Ganjar Pranowo looked all set to be the shoe in candidate to win next year's election and assume the presidency of Indonesia. READ :  Ganjar Pranowo is the most popular candidate to replace Jokowi as the next President of Indonesia.

AND then just like that, the most popular active politician in Indonesia,  saw his popularity go down the drain when  he poked his nose in the world of sports, causing Indonesia to lose the opportunity  to host the 2023 Under 20 FIFA World Cup.  

READ :  Ganjarer , Koster made into pariahs over U-20 cancellation.

The moral of the story is politicians should keep their nose out of sports, because the underlying feeling is that they are out to use and abuse sporting associations for their own politicial use, ie to bolster their own political standing.

Take, for instance, Tengku Zafrul's recent coup in

 being annoited  READ : as the next Badminton Association of Malaysia President, taking over from the failed politician Norza Zakaria.

We all know Tengku Zafrul as a Liverpool loving football fan, and not as somebody who has the well being of Badminton in the country at heart.

Tengku Zafrul has too much on his plate already as the minister in charge of MITI and too many issues that could blow up on his face and embarrass Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, for him to even remotely be the ideal choice to lead badminton to a new era.

ROCKY’s BRU comments:

Totally agree with nuclearmanbursa. Tengku Zafrul is hardly in the country because he has a big responsibility to Anwar Ibrahim’s government and to this country. Humongous responsibility to bring in the investment that will create jobs and wealth and spur the economy. Right now he is in San Francisco, or on the way there, to attend the ministerial meeting of APEC, ahead of PM Anwar Ibrahim’s participation in the grouping’s Summit on 15-17 Nov. 

You can count how many days in a month Zafrul is in the country. How can he possibly take on another huge responsibility which could take up even more time than his MITI portfolio? 

What was he thinking when he accepted outgoing BAM President Norza Zakaria’s appointment?

And what was Norza thinking? His tenure as BAM chief may have been smashing, or not, depending on who you’re talking to. I’m not qualified to judge. But I can say with some certainty that Norza did neither BAM nor Zafrul any favour by ‘anointing’ the MITI Minister as his successor. 

I am not saying that ALL politicians should be denied or deprived the chance to lead sporting bodies. But serving MPs and Cabinet Ministers should say NO. They have enough on their plates. 

 In Zafrul’s case, his job as MITI Minister is too important and too big for the wellbeing of our economy for him to even entertain Norza’s suggestion that he was the right man for the BAM job. 

Stop kidding us. Stop kidding yourselves. BAM needs someone who can give 100 percent of his or her time and energy to the further development of badminton and its never-ending politics and polemics. 

The only way Zafrul can be that someone is if he decides to quit Anwar Ibrahim’s Cabinet.

Anwar at UNGA

This article has been edited for  scoop.my

Heading: Anwar Ibrahim’s much-awaited UN General Assembly debut

Sub: Between his address to over 100 world leaders and a rare khutbah at New York’s oldest mosque, the PM will attempt to make Malaysia’s “rightful claim” as global middle power

By ROCKY BRU

New York: Malaysia’s flamboyant ambassador to the US Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz describes his job as “an easy one”. “I’m lucky. My job is made easy and it’s because of who the Prime Minister (of Malaysia) is and how he is perceived.”

I had just asked him if he had managed to change how the Americans view Malaysia after taking up the job in February.We were at Malaysia’s Permanent Mission in New York after a briefing for Malaysian journalists by Foreign Minister Zambry Kadir, who is in New York ahead of PM Anwar Ibrahim’s maiden address to the 78th UN General Assembly. 

Nazri, 69, has a long Cabinet career, having served several PMs, notably as the de facto Minister of Law when in Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Cabinet. But since Anwar became PM in November last year, Nazri said the perception of Malaysia, especially in the US, has changed and changed for the better.

“Largely, Anwar is perceived by the Americans as a leader who upholds democracy, the rule of law and transparency,” he added.

Anwar, who arrives in New York today, will not only be addressing (over 100) world leaders attending the UNGA (Friday 10 pm Msian time). He is also being accorded the singular honour as the first world leader to deliver a Friday sermon at the Islamic Cultural Centre here.

Zambry, underscoring the importance of the khutbah Jumaat the PM is delivering this Friday, said the growing divide between the global South and developed North and the rise of Islamophobia mean there was a need to bridge the various gaps of priorities and principles.

The former Perak Menteri Besar has been busier than usual in the weeks leading to the General Assembly, traveling from one time zone to another to spread the word on Malaysia’s new foreign policies under Anwar’s madani. 

Last week, for example, he was in Havana, Cuba attending the G77+China Summit where he urged the South to stop indulging in self-pity and blaming others. Before that, in Jakarta for the ASEAN leaders’ meeting, he articulated a rare, strongly-worded warning against Myanmar. And last month when in Tehran to re-establish ties with Iran, Zambry condemned the US for prolonged sanctions on the Muslim country.

Zambry has assimilated quite a team to support Anwar at UN, which include four Members of Parliament, the deputy chief ministers of Sabah and Sarawak. Bursa Malaysia CEO Umar Swift and Khazanah Nasional Berhad managing director Amirul Feisal Wan Zahir are also in the delegation to lay the groundwork for the PM in matters related to investment and business.

MITI Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz got in late yesterday and, following a blitzkrieg of meetings with CEOs, quickly announced foreign direct investments into Malaysia involving American interests valued at some RM2 billion. 

“My job has also been made easier. It’s easy to ‘sell’ the (Anwar) brand to these investors. Of course, we have to work hard and act quickly as the windows of oppotunity don’t stay open for long periods of time, but we’re on it,” Zafrul said at a meeting with Malaysian journalists at Conrad Hotel on West 54th, where the PM and official delegation are staying. 

Interestingly, in trade as with politics, Malaysia finds itself in the middle. Zafrul spoke of a “trade war’ involving the US and China and how American corporate entities, notably in the semiconductor, are leaving China for Malaysia. Asked by the Group Editor-in-Chief of The Scoop, Terence Fernandez, if he was not worried of getting in the way of the two feuding powers, Zafrul said both the US and China are Malaysia’s largest trading partners. 

“Sometimes we have to behave like opportunists, but the windows (of opportunity) don’t stay open forever. Moreover, we still have to compete with others in the region, especially Vietnam,” he said.

Zambry, meanwhile, said Anwar has agreed to be interviewed by CNN and Bloomberg in between his meetings with chief execs from Fortune 500 Companies and closed-door meetings with heads of governments, among others, President Erdogan of Turkiye, a key Malaysian ally in combating Islamophobia and in fighting for the rights of Palestine.

Howard Lee Chuan How, the MP for Ipoh Timur, who is one of the young politcians Zambry has selected to be in Team Malaysia, said Anwar should be leaving a huge impact on the US with his UNGA, the New York khutbah Jumaat and everything else in between.

“Anwar’s commitment in New York and the UNGA as well as the size of the delegation that Wisma Putra has sent here is indicative of Malaysia’s seriousness in assuming our rightful place in the world as a global middle power,” he said.

Ah, Wong Chun Wai!

Wong Chun Wai, the former editor-in-chief of The Star, will be made this afternoon the new chairman of Bernama, the national  news agency, sources said. If I’m not mistaken, he’ll the first non-Malay to be appointed to the post. Wong has never served Bernama as a reporter but that has never been a pre-requisite; his predecessor Ras Adibah Radzi, who joined the Opposition a little too hastily (I thought) after the end of her tenure as Bernama chairman (and senator) earlier this year, was also never a Bernama employee. Chun Wai has been a journalist for about 40 years and the circumstances surrounding his appointment to Bernama had been much talked about. With his vast experience as editor and non-editorial executive of one of the most profitable newspapers in the country, Chun Wai is expected to turn Bernama into a financially self-sustainable entity, for once. 

The 62-year old was not the first choice, apparently. The post had been offered to Meor Kamarulbaid Mior Shahid, the former Berita Harian editor, but they discovered that Meor was past 70 and, therefore, overaged.