STATE Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee is keeping up with his tradition of distributing mooncakes to the media practitioners as well as residents in the Bagan Jermal constituency in conjunction with the Moon Cake Festival a.k.a ‘Tanglong Festival’ (Mid-Autumn Festival).
However, this year, Soon, who is also the assemblyman for Bagan Jermal, said he distributed over 1,500 packets of mooncakes to those Covid-19 patients in his constituency who are currently under home quarantine.
“This year, we wanted to focus on giving out the mooncakes to those who are on home quarantine to bring some cheer to them.
“The Mooncake Festival is one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar, thus we do not want the Covid-19 pandemic to affect the festive mood,’’ said Soon when he visited the Buletin Mutiara office today to distribute the mooncakes.
Soon also conveyed his hope of seeing the country coming out from health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic as soon as possible.
“My desire during this auspicious month is to see us as a nation overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. I can see now that political situation is slightly stable,’’ said Soon.
On a separate matter, Soon also congratulated the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and Paralympics 2020 athletes who brought honour to the country by winning medals in their respective sports.
“We treat both the Olympians and Paralympians as the same because that is the spirit of ‘Sports For All’ which the state government upholds.
“We must keep encouraging the Paralympics athletes as their achievements are no different from the Olympics athletes.
“For instance, national road cyclist Nur Azlia Syafinaz Mohd Zais, who is from Penang, gave her best in the Tokyo Paralympics. We must give our support to her continuously,’’ said Soon, who hopes Sukma 2022 will take place.
On Aug 31, it was reported that Nur Azlia was rushed to a medical centre after experiencing breathing difficulties while competing in the women’s time trial at the Tokyo Paralympics. As a result, she was not able to compete in the finals.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Noor Siti Nabilah Noorazis