COMMENT | Use and throw away: How we treat athletes who made us proud

For Koh Lee Peng, the hardest part wasn’t selling tissue papers under the hot sun of Bukit Bintang. It wasn’t even the dramatic contrast of Pavilion Mall, Lot 10, Fahrenheit 88 – symbols of peak materialism – dawning right next to her in her torn clothes. It was the gaze from onlookers.

People questioned whether she really was a former Paralympian. She had to show her IC and put up laminated newspapers cuttings to prove her swimming achievements.

She even dared others to Google her to see that she used to be Penang’s Best Paralympic Sportswoman in 2015 and the Female Paralympian of the Year two years later.

The question remains in many of our minds: Is this really how our country’s greatest former athletes are being treated?

She wasn’t the only one. Last year, Vice produced a documentary of Malaysia’s first-ever Paralympic medallist, Mariappan Perumal. “I worked hard for this country and competed in 7 Paralympics, but this is what I got,” he said, showing his shiny medals trapped in a narrow and tiny low-cost flat, supported by only a low pension, an old motorcycle, and no job...