Malaysian Anti-Doping Act 2021 expected to come into force in two years

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 -- The government is expected to enforce the Malaysian Anti-Doping Act 2021 within the next two years in an effort to ensure that doping can be controlled in the country.

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said his ministry together with the Malaysian Anti-Doping Agency (Adamas) was currently in the process of drafting the act to be used as a law for sports in the country in the future.

"It will take some time (the act), so the process starts now and is expected that within two years, Insya-Allah (God willing), will be enforced," he told a press conference after launching the National Anti-Doping Seminar 2021 in Bangi near here today.

He said a total of seven series of engagement sessions with more than 1,300 stakeholders had been undertaken since last month in an effort to get feedback to draft the act.

He said the findings from the questionnaire also found that the majority of participants agreed with the ministry's intention to legislate the Anti-Doping Act.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Faizal reminded all national sports associations to respect the autonomy of Adamas as the national anti-doping body and report any misconduct and violation of anti-doping rules among athletes or officials.

He was confident that when all parties work together to ensure that Malaysia complies with anti-doping codes and rules, the country will not be worried if it is audited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the future.

“What worries us is that if Malaysia is listed as non-compliant as happened to two neighboring countries.

"”Non-compliance will be detrimental to the country because not only will we be disqualified from organising any sports tournaments at the international level but also the national athletes are not allowed to fly the national flag at any international sports tournament they participate in," he said.

Ahmad Faizal also informed that a total of 1,476 series of tests outside competitions and 902 in competitions have been conducted targeting athletes from 2016 to date.

Of the total, he said only 36 positive cases equivalent to 1.51 per cent were detected with most of the athletes involved suffering suspensions of two to four years depending on the degree of offence, whether it was intentional or otherwise.

Earlier, Ahmad Faizal had witnessed the signing ceremony of the adoption of the document of the Adamas Anti-Doping Rules 2021 involving the top leadership of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), the Malaysian Paralympic Council (MPM) and all affiliated members.

The acceptance of the rules is among the conditions of compliance to the World Anti-Doping Code 2021 which stipulates that OCM, MPM and affiliates recognise Adamas as the agency responsible for anti-doping affairs in Malaysia besides adopting the Adamas Anti-Doping Rules 2021 in all matters at their respective levels.

The seminar was held in a hybrid manner to provide an understanding of the key changes contained in the World Anti-Doping Code 2021 and the Adamas Anti-Doping Rules 2021, besides making it a platform for sharing and discussion on doping issues among strategic partners and stakeholders.

-- BERNAMA