SHAH ALAM, 4 April: The Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, has been reminded to not take information from ‘any coffee-shop’ to continue to blame the Selangor Government with allegations of not being committed to the restoration of two hockey stadiums in the state.
The Executive Councillor in charge of Youth and Sports, Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi, said that the State Government is serious in repairing the stadiums as soon as the working papers are presented for approval by the State Government Council Meeting (MMKN), which is now in its final stage.
He said that the process to repair the Pandamaran and Petaling Hockey Stadiums will be done according to established procedures set by the Selangor Government upon approval.
“I asked for Khairy to not be too prejudiced simply because differences in political ideology and to try to take a cheap shot in politicising the hockey stadium issue when this problem has existed since the time Barisan Nasional (BN) led Selangor.
“Do not just be good at pointing fingers and placing blame on the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government which had to inherit the weaknesses and negligence of the previous BN administration.
“I hope that Khairy is open to meet or contact me directly if he needs valid information on the development and sports infrastructure in Selangor,” he said in a statement today.
Yesterday, the media reported that Khairy blamed the State Government for allegedly not paying attention to the problems of hockey stadiums in the state following comments from several stakeholders.
He also criticised the State Government of only spending money to repair the Shah Alam Stadium, but did not do the same for hockey stadiums.
Commenting on the allegations, Yunus said that the State Government will not compromise on matters involving the safety of visitors, especially if it is one of the hallmarks of Selangor, like the Shah Alam Stadium.
He said that the Shah Alam Stadium is already 20 years old and a bit of restoration should be carried out in accordance with the standards of the stadium involved, which is frequently used for international football tournaments.
“But this does not mean stadiums for other sports are discriminated in terms of repairing their training location. There are training centres and stadiums where the process has to be hastened, while others are delayed,” he said.
