PETALING JAYA: Bring up Kota Alam Shah's DAP assemblyman M. Manoharan's name on Tuesday and signs of anger and frustration begin to form on Malaysian faces. “I can't believe what he wrote. It is so wrong,” cafe owner Marti told Bikyamasr.com in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday morning. He was referring to the numerous statements on his personal Twitter account following Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei's loss to China's Lin Dan in the Olympic badminton men's singles final. Manoharan tweeted: “Malaysia will win its first gold medal in Olympics after Pakatan takes over Putrajaya.” Many observers and commentators argued that the Malaysian player actually played better than his Chinese counterpart, but couldn't win the important points when he needed to. Manoharan lashed at this argument. “If Chong Wei played better than Lin Dan, why didn't he win? We must be firm with our players so that we can see a gold one day. “Whoever wins a gold medal with Olympics, we must congratulate them,” wrote the politician. Bloggers and activists have set up a Facebook page already, titled “We Want Manoharan Malayalam to apologize to Lee Chong Wei.” The page already has thousands of likes. Manoharan, however, denied any intent to insult the national player. “My intention was for the betterment of our sports and to improve our chances to win in the next Olympics,” he said, stressing that it was his personal opinion and not Pakatan's stand. Last year, the DAP politician stirred similar controversy when he suggested modifying the Jalur Gemilang, claiming its design did not reflect Malaysia. DAP suspended his membership for 6 months from Sept 23 but lifted the punishment after a month. Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Razali Ibrahim said the comments showed the level of thinking of Pakatan leaders who were only keen on gaining political mileage. “How can someone be so insensitive when the nation is grieving after losing the crucial match? Sports should be above politics. I feel that Chong Wei has contributed more to Malaysia compared to many of us,” he said. Malaysians had hoped Lee would bring home the country's first gold medal, but was forced to settle for silver as China continued its strong performance.
