The Sports Ministry wanted to develop the Tun Abdul Razak Research Institute’s facilities into a “forward base” for Malaysian athletes competing in Europe.
I stood firm that it would be a waste of public money, and for good measure suggested it would end up as a boarding place for selected politicians and their cronies on their sojourns to London.
Half-truths and misinformation were fed to a gullible section of the media, who pliantly swallowed the words hook, line, and sinker.
Emissaries from the then sports minister Azalina Othman Said came to ask me to “drop the subject” and when it did not work, they...