KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will not be blackmailed by the organisers of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) Women’s World Championships, says Khairy Jamaluddin.
The Youth and Sports Minister said Saturday that the organisers, Hallmark Events Group, had admitted on Friday night that besides security concerns, another reason for recommending the postponement of the event was financial problems.
“In the email they sent, they said they can proceed with event next week if the Malaysian government can provide sponsorship, including RM3.5mil, for private security arrangements,” said Khairy.
“I do not appreciate that, being blackmailed by the organisers in using the issue of security and painting Malaysia in a bad light when a large part of the reason why they decided to postpone this was because of sponsorship.“This is preposterous, absolutely preposterous. I’m not going to be blackmailed by an international event organiser
He added that it is now up to the organisers to find the sponsorship, as the Government couldn’t comply due to budgetary reasons.
Earlier this week, the tournament promoters had raised the issue of security concerns, a move that left Malaysian authorities both puzzled and angered.
The tournament was due to be held at Bukit Jalil and KLCC from Dec 11-18.
