Making Malaysia A 'Sporting Nation' Is Khairy's Dream

SHAH ALAM (Selangor, Malaysia), April 16 (Bernama) -- Making Malaysia a 'Sporting Nation' has become the dream of Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to enhance a healthy lifestyle among the community and national sports performance at the international arena. He said the sports culture in the country must start from the grassroots and his ministry was striving to ensure that this ambition was achieved. "For example, Australia has less population than our country but the culture and mentality of its people are inclined towards the ability to compete in the international arena," he said when officiating at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) 2013 sports award ceremony here Tuesday night. He said efforts would also focus on producing more 'scholar athletes' with adequate academic qualification. At the function, Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy, 21, sailboat sport athlete and Fazilla Sylvester Silin, 27, from hockey sport were respectively named as UiTM 2013 Sportsman and Sportswoman. He said UiTM's achievement in sports, which had the potential to produce high performance athletes at the international level, was a good example that the country would become a successful sporting nation in future. -- BERNAMA