A LOCAL entrepreneur, Azri Zahier Azmi, has apologised to Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman for allegedly not promoting the HausBoom beverage.

In a Facebook post today, he apologised to all Malaysians and admitted he was not a qualified to be a role model.

“To Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, I sincerely apologise for my rudeness,” he said. 

Yesterday, the businessman, who launched the HausBoom drinks, vented that he was upset with Syed Saddiq for not fulfilling his promise to help local entrepreneurs promote their products on the minister’s Instagram account.

An officer from the ministry had contacted Azri about the minister’s initiative to help local young entrepreneurs by promoting products on his Instagram account.

Azri was told he would have to provide the beverage for a cabinet meeting, along with a company profile.

He said he is not a politician and the language he used to explain what is right and true could be deemed crude.

“I’m not a politician. What I said was the right thing from the heart. The people are mad. But I’m not here to please anyone. Just me and my team.

“Only real entrepreneurs understand my and the team’s disappointment.

“We strived for many years, being away from our children, borrowed money from people and fight for the business.”

Azri’s disappointment was over the minister’s failure to honour a promise.

“(The promise was not just made) to me, there was many more promises to others. They just choose to keep silent and ignore us.

“Four months (120 days). That’s the time given for the minister to respond. I have used all the channels to remind them about their promise but Syed Saddiq just ignored it.

“I sent an official letter with an invoice. To me, if they can’t keep their promise, just pay the cost of the sponsorship, which is not much for the ministry. It’s only RM192 but for us, that’s a big amount.”

Azri’s anger was provoked by Syed Saddiq endorsing a brand of chocolate cake produced by a member of Bersatu Youth’s exco.

Syed Saddiq said he has ordered his staff to reimburse Azri for the drinks sent to his ministry.

Meanwhile, billionaire Vincent Tan’s son, Morvin Tan, confirmed that Syed Saddiq had met his father to ask 7-Eleven outlets promote youth-related products.

Morvin said he was at the meeting where the minister raised the topics of sports, youth, and local products.

“I was present in that meeting and can verify that YB Syed Saddiq did meet my father TSVT and the sole purpose of that discussion was sports, youth, and local products.

“He wanted to promote all three, and asked my father to get 7-Eleven to showcase more local products,” the younger Tan wrote in an Instagram story .

The chief operating officer of Berjaya Times Square said his father was receptive of Syed Saddiq’s ideas and and had pledged to discuss these further with the team handling the convenience store chain.

He also said it was unfair to criticise Syed Saddiq without knowledge of the full facts. – February 6, 2019.