Equal, just reward for Paralympians

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Jamilah, Fatimah and other officials seen with the state Paralympic teams, one of the nine state teams which competed in the recently concluded Malaysian Paralympiad Games during yesterday’s ceremony at the Baitulmal Building.

Jamilah, Fatimah and other officials seen with the state Paralympic teams, one of the nine state teams which competed in the recently concluded Malaysian Paralympiad Games during yesterday’s ceremony at the Baitulmal Building.

KUCHING: Sarawak’s Paralympians became the first to receive incentives on par with able-bodied athletes yesterday, with a total of 187 athletes pocketing a windfall of RM800,000.

The ground-breaking benchmark for the ‘new normal’ was set at a prize-cum-awards ceremony held at the Baitulmal Building, officiated by no less than the chief minister’s wife Datin Patinggi Dato Jamilah Anu and Minister of Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Datuk Fatimah Abdullah yesterday.

As equal largesse for the state’s latest Malaysian Paralympiad Games triumph, the state government splashed out RM869,800 as incentives to the contingent. Out of the figure, winning athletes were rewarded RM661,500 while successful teams were given RM130,000.

Team officials and coaches were also handsomely rewarded with RM76,000. The Paralympians were rewarded accordingly with RM5,000 for first gold and RM7,000 for second and subsequent gold medal; RM750 for silver and RM500 for bronze medal.

According to Fatimah, the success of the Paralympiad athletes is equally important to the success of regular Sarawakian athletes as both bring glory to the state.

“They (Sarawak Paralympians) have overcome all sorts of obstacles to bring glory to the state. When we dare to dream big or aim high and are willing to work hard and give our full commitment, despite our shortcomings, we believe we can achieve success,” she added.

Jamilah, on the other hand, commented that there should be no differentiation between “regular” and Paralympiad athletes from now on. This was because both categories of athletes are fighting for the same cause; to bring glory to Sarawak sports.

“For the latest achievement of the our Paralympians, the people of Sarawak are proud of them. Winning in the Games is no easy task as it takes a lot of hard work and determination to achieve,” she said.

Apart from that, she too claimed that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem has made the decision to reward the state Paralympians with the same incentive as would “regular” or normal athletes, stealing the march on a federal announcement in implementing the same reward as well.

Also speaking to reporters after the ceremony was state head coach Mathew Chin for the Sports Champ project (a project which oversees the development of state Paralympians) who commented that it was about time Paralympians get the same reward as “normal” athletes.

“I thank the state government for acknowledging the contribution of the Paralympiad athletes as being on par with the so-called regular athletes. Their love and hard work for the state is no different from the regular athletes which is why they should get equal incentives,” he commented.

Last month, Sarawak were crowned the Malaysian Paralympiad Games champion for the 12th consecutive time, finishing with a 84-gold medal haul, surpassing its pre-Games target of 80 gold.

Nine state teams competed in nine sports during the Malaysian Paralympics, namely badminton, tenpin bowling, lawn bowling, chess, archery, athletics, table-tennis, powerlifting and swimming. What made the victory sweeter was that they won the Games on home soil, as Sarawak played host this year.