COMMENT | Transparency 'off the blocks' in Sports Ministry

COMMENT | One of the highlights of my regular forays into questioning how public funds were spent was having the microphone taken away from me because I was asking difficult questions.

At a packed media conference to announce the launch of the Champions Youth Cup in 2007, I posed a series of questions to the then youth and sports minister Azalina Othman Said to justify spending RM17 million on a football tournament that brought no benefits to the country or the development of sports.

When no plausible answers were provided, a PR man tapped me on the shoulder and took away the mic after which the minister quipped: “If you don’t like our policies, stand for elections.”

Needless to say, the tournament was a flop but Jonathan Price, the UK-based promoter collected his money and laughed all the way to the bank.

The stench from the misuse of power and money in the past could be felt a mile away through “projects”.

Among them, was a grandiose plan to...