Sukma gold medalists not shortchanged – Abdul Karim

November 28, 2018

KUCHING: Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has clarified that the Sukma gold medalists were not shortchanged when they were paid RM3,000 as incentives instead of alleged promises of RM5,000 for first gold and RM7,000 for the subsequent golds.

“There is no shortchange as there was no promises in the first place,” he said in responding to media reports on allegation of unfairness over the distribution of of incentives to this year state Sukma gold, silver and bronze medalists.

This issue on incentive arose when a national news portal reported that six athletes from Sarawak were not happy with the alleged shortchange and failure by the State Sports Council to fulfill its promises.

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It was understood that only the gold medalists were complaining, while the silver and bronze medalists were just happy to receive more than what they had expected to receive after the event.

According to Abdul Karim, the quantum of incentives is only decided after Sukma was over and after referral made to the cabinet and state government on how much to give to the medalists.

“It involves ‘budgeting’ and we cannot presume how many medals we will get before the games (Sukma) started. I can’t recall making any promises,” he said, pointing out that each Sukma incentives are independent of each other.

Abdul Karim was reported yesterday to have said that he could not please everyone but must be seen to be fair in the distribution of incentives.

He also said that in previous Sukma, Sarawak gave RM5,000 for gold, RM750 for silver and RM500 for bronze.

He reasoned that the gap between gold and silver or bronze is very wide despite silver and bronze had medalists also given their best and ending as podium finishers.

“For this year, to be fair to the medalists, Sarawak Government and State Cabinet has agreed, after taking into consideration how much incentives are given by states that performed better then Sarawak for instance Terengganu and Selangor, have decided to adopt more or less the same amount of incentives for gold, silver and bronze medalists which is RM3,000 for gold, RM2,000 for silver and RM1,000 for bronze,” he said.

This, Abdul Karim said, were also the same incentives given out by Terengganu which ended up as overall champion of Sukma event in Perak this year.

Abdul Karim was also quoted as saying that he hoped athletes would not question the incentive amount as Sarawak government has looked at every angle before deciding on how much incentives to be given.

“Further more athletes when they prepare themselves for Sukma should know that they are competing to gain glory for their beloved state Sarawak and not for any monetary incentives.

“Whatever incentives given should be looked upon as a ‘reward’ from the state. Their contributions in representing the State are very much appreciated and it could not be valued in dollars and sen.

“The gold medalists might not be happy but I am sure the silver and bronze medalists are happy. They are fighters for the State too. What about those that did not end up on the podium and not getting medals and incentives?

“They have equally prepared and had worked very hard to represent Sarawak but because they didn’t end up as podium finishers, they were somehow ‘forgotten’. Hopefully all athletes that are given incentives could appreciate and be thankful with whatever incentives given however small it may be,” said Abdul Karim. -TheBorneoPost