Cover image via
Bernama/The Borneo Post
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In a series of tweets, Pandelela recalled a former coach who often made sexually inappropriate jokes during training, and eventually committed rape.
She shared that she was so scared of him that she always had to fake laughter and was even bullied when she told him to stop.
“In the past, I had a coach who liked to make lewd jokes. I always kept quiet, if not, I’ll fake a laugh because I was afraid of him,” she said in a tweet today, 21 October.
“There was once I couldn’t stand it and confronted him about it, but I got bullied in return. Seven years later, he committed rape,” she added with the hashtag #rapejokeisnotfunny.
“We athletes couldn’t do anything, because his biggest back-up was our very own head coach,” she revealed.
However, she said the diving team is now happy with the national sports association that protects and cares for them.
As a moral to her story, Pandelela said the country needs good leaders who can tackle sexual harassment issues and not turn a blind eye to the problem.
“And those abused must speak up, please! Small voices still matter if we are united.”
“There are still sports journalists who criticise the decision that we made to shake up Malaysian diving in the light of these allegations a few years ago. I would make the same decision every single time,” said Khairy, who was formerly the Youth and Sports Minister.
Pandelela agreed that she does not regret the decision to speak up either, despite the judgement and pressure to perform with every competition.
“Athletes’ safety from physical and mental abuse over medals. All day, every day,” Khairy added.
In 2017, former national diving coach Huang Qiang, a Malaysian citizen who was originally from China, was charged in court with raping a national diver, then 20 years old, at a gym at the National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil.
According to New Straits Times, he was acquitted and set free by the High Court in February 2020 after a reasonable doubt was raised in the prosecution’s case.
Following the charge, the Ministry of Youth and Sports also decided to relieve then head coach Yang Zhuliang from the national diving programme, despite having successfully trained medal-winning athletes during his time there.
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