Malaysia Expected To Lose RM5 Million After Para Cancellation

Jared Anderson
by Jared Anderson 9

February 01st, 2019 News

A report suggests that the Sarawak state in Malaysia is expected to lose at least five million Malaysian ringgit (or about $1.2 million in U.S. Dollars) after being stripped of hosting rights for the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) took the hosting rights away from Malaysia when the country refused to grant visas to Israeli athletes competing in the event. That development happened last week on the heels of a report by Israeli news outlet YNet that said Israeli para-swimmers were being denied visas for the event.

Per The Malay Mail, a report conservatively estimated the losses to local hotels at RM1.5 million – that number came from John Teo, the secretary-general of the local chapter of the Malaysian Association of Hotels.

“Two weeks’ worth of hotel guest volume gone suddenly, it will certainly have a big impact on the hotel industry, it will be difficult for hotels to find such a big volume of guests in a short time to fill up the gap,” he said in the report. Teo also mentioned several more industries that would be affected, including travel agencies, restaurants and airlines.

Malaysia had been preparing to host the event for two years, but the IPC said the nation’s change in leadership in May of 2018 changed the situation.

“All World Championships must be open to all eligible athletes and nations to compete safely and free from discrimination,” said IPC President Andrew Parsons. “When a host country excludes athletes from a particular nation, for political reasons, then we have absolutely no alternative but to look for a new Championships host.”

9
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

9 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
SUM Ting Wong
5 years ago

Noh Ting Wong .

Jmanswimfan
5 years ago

> Be Malaysia
> hosting championship
> be upset that Israel slaughtered peaceful protestors and continues to violate international law
> ban Israel
> lose championship because ICP is controlled by European powers who love Israel for upholding western influence and cause the president comes from a country where the majority population believes in the fairy tale that is the bible
> feels neo imperialism man

jmanswimfan
Reply to  Jmanswimfan
5 years ago

> Be swimswam reader
> be Evangelical Christian who also hates Palestinians cause they hate non white people
> disagree with anyone being upset that Palestinian civilians were slaughtered
> downvote the truth

RenéDescartes
Reply to  jmanswimfan
5 years ago

These are not the memes you’re looking for.

Wallaby
Reply to  jmanswimfan
5 years ago

This isn’t about politics, it’s about disabled athletes getting a fair chance to compete at the world championships. Sport shouldn’t be governed by global politics to the point where athletes can’t enter a country due to 2 countries disagreements

Jmanswimfan
Reply to  Wallaby
5 years ago

Bet you wouldn’t say the same if Israel shot your kid, then starved you and cut off your acces to medicine. Or is that how pathetic you are.

Swimmer
Reply to  Jmanswimfan
5 years ago

You don’t know anything about the conflict. The left media is targeting ignorant people like you who never lived in the area who would obviously feel bad for the “poor” Palestinians civilians who are ruled by a terror organization supported by Iran and Qatar. I would like to see what you would do if Canada or Mexico fired rockets at your house and built tunnels to kidnap you and your children. Go live in the area, and until you do so, stop believing to the media and stop commenting political comments on a swimming website.

ChompChomp
Reply to  jmanswimfan
5 years ago

At the end of the day, Malaysia lost the right to host the World Championships because they violated a contract. They decided that their moral imperative, which some will agree with and some will disagree with, was more important than the contract they signed.

If Malaysia had not violated a contract, and the IPC had pulled the meet because of their own religious beliefs, as you’ve claimed, then they would be on the hook for all of these losses.

There are many, many underlying reasons for why this fell apart. But, the direct and proximate cause (in legal jargon) of the meet being pulled is not the IPCs desire to lift up Israel, or put down Palestine, or promote the… Read more »

Oompah
Reply to  ChompChomp
5 years ago

finally …

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

Read More »