SHE was once highly admired for making the country proud with her outstanding skills and athletic performance, but is now back in the spotlight for a surprising reason.
Koh Lee Peng, who was one of Malaysia’s top Paralympic athletes, was discovered to be selling tissues by the roadside in order to provide for herself. The 48-year-old’s situation came to light when she was seen selling tissue covers in her wheelchair in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
Koh was spotted by a citizen named Fayadh Wahab, who then took to social media to document his encounter with the former para swimmer in a series of tweets.
Wahab mentioned that Koh was wearing the Harimau Malaya polo t-shirt that is often worn by our national athletes, and was spotted holding a ripped laminated newspaper with the headline captioned “Former OKU Paralympic Swimmer Scorned”.
The Twitter user further revealed that Koh had introduced herself and told him to search for her name on YouTube if he didn’t believe who she was. Despite being one of Malaysia’s best athletes less than a decade ago, she mentioned she is not ashamed of her current job.
When her story broke that she was heavily criticised for selling tissues to eke out a living a few years ago, Koh revealed people doubting her identity isn’t something new.
According to Berita Harian, locals who did not recognise the former Malaysian sports star had accused her of being an illegal immigrant from Vietnam, Thailand or the Philippines, and she had even been asked to show her Malaysian identity card (MyKad) as proof. She had even been accused of being a part of a begging syndicate.
Previously, Koh was employed in an office job but had to resign her position due to the challenges she had to endure while trying to access the building.
Koh, who has cerebral palsy, used to represent Malaysia at the ASEAN Para Games from 2001 to 2005 and made Malaysia proud by bringing home seven gold and three silver medals.
The Penang-born para-athlete was also crowned Penang’s Best Paralympic Sportswoman in 2015, and the 2016 Female Paralympian of the Year at the Penang State Sports Awards in 2017.
