JOHOR BARU: Johor Regent Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim has questioned why some appear to trust foreign documents over those from the National Registration Department (NRD).
Addressing the alleged falsification of heritage player status for seven national footballers, he said questioning Malaysia's official documents undermine the sovereignty of Malaysia's laws and indirectly casts doubt on the citizenship status of other Malaysians.
"For example, a foreign document says their grandfather was born there but ours states he was born here. Suddenly the question is, 'Oh, ours is wrong, theirs is correct'.
"If you can question NRD's letters and documents, maybe you are not Malaysians either," Sinar Harian reported him as saying.
Tunku Ismail also said many people suddenly become 'experts' or 'FIFA presidents' when the issue arose, but remained silent on real problems in Malaysian football, such as unpaid player salaries arrears and the failure of grassroots development.
"Everyone is eager to talk, everyone wants to be a coach – but no one talks about why Malaysian football is not progressing.
"For example, Penang FA came to me asking for RM500,000. I gave it. Why? Because Penang FC did not want to give money to Penang FA for grassroots programmes.
"But when allegations of falsification involving these seven players arose, everyone focuses on that. Then, FIFA itself approved it but it later bacame an issue of falsification," he said.
