KUALA LUMPUR – The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has agreed to appoint its deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam as the acting president of the governing body effective August 24th.
The decision was reached at the BAM Council meeting held at the Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil today to find a replacement for Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria who will leave BAM after the Paris Olympics.
Norza had previously expressed his desire to step down as BAM president and named Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz as his successor who was supposed to start his term earlier this year.
However, Norza postponed his decision after Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh requested him to stay until the end of the Paris Olympic campaign scheduled for next July.
“As mentioned earlier, I will retire immediately after the Paris Olympics. We will have a council meeting and the target date is 24 August. On that date, we will do a handover with the acting president.
“We have decided unanimously that the acting president will be deputy president I Datuk S. Subramaniam because we want to maintain stability in the organisation.
“And this arrangement will continue until the annual grand meeting (AGM) next year, where we will appoint the new president and deputy president according to the term.
“According to the constitution, the real term ends in 2025. In order to maintain stability and strengthen what we have now, everyone agrees that initially until next year’s AGM, it should be an internal candidate.
“If, let’s say, we need to be looking at the right person, it will be next year, but if the council is happy with the current situation, we will retain the status quo,” said Norza.
BAM’s AGM next year is expected to be held around April or May to elect a new executive committee.
Subramaniam, who is also Selangor Badminton Association president, has been shouldering the responsibility as BAM deputy president since 2007.
For Subramaniam, his priority is to convince existing stakeholders to remain with BAM, especially their main sponsor, conglomerate company Petronas, whose sponsorship agreement will expire next year.
“I just want to continue all the plans that Norza had previously initiated, especially the development programmes.
“Regarding sponsorship, I have been involved in discussions with Norza and other management personnel for a long time, so we have all been working together with our sponsors Petronas and Yonex.
“I believe they (Petronas) will stay with us because, during this period, they have been very good to us, they have seen us working and together we want to develop Malaysian badminton,” said Subramaniam. – May 25, 2024