Note: Thanks to Lim Kit Siang's blog, I was alerted to an article in the New Straits Times. Sometimes, this newspaper surprises me. Here's the extract:
At Parliament House today, the Malaysian Olympic silver medalist cosied up with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister where he enthralled attendees with his winning exploits against his wily opponents, shuttlers leading up to the semis, though it was likely that his anecdotes against the great Lin Dan was minimal. It was already a known fact that coming in second in any Olympic sport meant a RM300,000 cash reward and a RM3,000 lifetime monthly pension, so we know Chong Wei will soon be, deservedly, filthily loaded.
What was NOT known was that the reward presentation will fortuitously be held in Penang tomorrow night. "Since he is a Penang boy, we've decided to have a cheque presentation in the state,” Datuk Seri Najib Razak said after a 10-minute meeting with Lee at his Parliament office.
Co-incidence? Crass political exploitation? Why not? Penang boy Chong Wei getting the award in his home state is the perfect setting, except for that little by-election gig where Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is heavily involved. It should be noted that badminton-loving Anwar did write a bit in his blog about how he missed watching Chong Wei’s bouts, seeing that the ex-DPM is super busy campaigning to topple the BN government with some tricky defection game, priming himself as the Prime Minister-in-waiting and devising strategies to win Permatang Pauh, not necessarily in this order.
It was inevitable: Lee Chong Wei has, unwittingly or not, been made a fodder in this by-election battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment