Tour de Langkawi in trouble?

The Tour de Langkawi organization committee talks broke session early on Thursday over discrepancies in the appointments of several companies to undertake projects for the Tour. After initial fears that the internal struggles would compromise the race for 2007, Malaysian National Cycling Federation president Abu Samah assured yesterday that the national body will deliver a race worthy of its Hors classe status.

In a report in the New Sunday Times online edition, Samah was quoted as saying "We have found solutions to our problems and all our differences have been settled. We are now a team and all decisions that we’ve made have been agreed to by the whole executive committee."

The trouble arose when it was discovered that Samah had appointed Red Revolution Sendirian Berhad as event manager without the full agreement of the MNCF board. That, and other appointments (including decisions on steering-committee board members), were invalidated at the meeting.

"I had thought that the (board) had agreed to it and I proceeded," Samah said. "The problem is that I attended the task force meetings alone and maybe there was some misunderstanding."

Samah is reported to be working with the board, who have established a new steering committee. "I think we should move forward," said deputy president Datuk Naim Mohamad. "We have to regain the credibility of the race and make sure that we don’t betray the trust that the Government has in us. We’re ready to forget what had happened."

See also: 2006 Tour de Langwaki