PUTRAJAYA: Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, the new Youth and Sports Minister, said he does not want to bring a ‘witch-hunt’ culture into the administration and look for faults of the previous government.
“The focus is how we can move forward in the greater interest of the people instead of dwelling on the flaws of the past,” said the youngest minister in the nation’s history, at aged 25, as he clocked in for the first time into the ministry at 8.40am yesterday. Also present was his deputy Steven Sim Chee Keong.
Dressed in a white shirt and dark grey pants, he stressed that there was no need for revenge, but should there be misconduct or faults in the administration, he would investigate the matter before taking any action.
“The work culture must change and ministry staff should set a new benchmark,” he said, promising to lead the ministry on ‘integrity and trust’.
The minister said his objective now was on what he could offer the people, especially the youth, who needed solutions on the many issues they faced.
“For example questions on how we can reduce the price of a home, how to solve the cost of living, how to make sure job opportunities are created adequately and vocational education is what they are asking,” said Syed Saddiq who is also the country’s 18th Youth and Sports Minister.
He added that he would continue to pursue all the programmes and policies of the former minister, if it brought positive outcomes to the people such as Fit Malaysia, the National Sports Day (HSN) and Perdana Fellowship.
He also said under his administration, he was always open and willing to work with all the former ministers of the ministry including Khairy Jamaluddin regardless of political affiliation.
On the Podium Programme, the minister said he would determine the future of the elite athlete’s programme with sports experts and athletes.
He also assured that no sport would be marginalised, adding that he would collaborate with the sports associations to look into ways to develop their respective sport. He pointed out that E-Games was not given much emphasis in the current technology era.
Commenting on the Asian Games which is scheduled to start from August 18 to September 2, Syed Saddiq said that he would first look into the country’s contingent Performance Indicator Index (KPI) before discussing the matter.
The minister also visited all departments and held a closed-door meeting with senior ministry officials. – Bernama
