FORMER national sprinter Watson Nyambek has lodged a police report against television station TV3 and Primeworks Studios for insulting his family name – despite a public apology from the studio.

Nyambek, 41, was furious over a segment of the programme Primeworks Studios produced, Sukan Tak Sentral, aired last Saturday, which he said degraded his family name.

He was accompanied by dozens of representatives from Dayak civil society groups – the Sarawak Dayak Association, Gagasan Anak Dayak Sarawak, Terabai Menua, Borneo Tail Club Miri, Dayak Bikers, Miri Kuntao Association – and even representatives from a political party, the Lambir branch Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), to the Miri central police station this morning.

Nyambek, who was also known as the “Flying Dayak” in his heyday, missed the programme but when told by his wife that a presenter of the programme, Azizul Ammar Abu Hassan, pronounced the family name like the bleating of a goat, he flew into a rage.

“It has brought shame to our family and I am mad,” he told reporters after lodging the report.

“The way they mentioned the name was as if they were comparing my father to an animal,” he said, referring to the programme’s joint hosts Azizul and Marsha Milan Londoh.

Nyambek, who is now a full-time trainer with the National Sports Council, said the report was “to request that police investigate the matter. I want to know the motive behind the presenter’s insensitive action and I want to take action against him”.

He is also mulling filing a civil action for damages.

Sarawak’s largest circulating daily, The Borneo Post, yesterday reported Nyambek as saying he viewed the insult “as a provocation to incite racial hatred by belittling an Iban name”.

The paper said Nyambek wanted the authorities to probe into the reason behind the show as he feared it could be part of an agenda to sow discord in the nation.

Primeworks Studios chief executive officer Ahmad Isham Omar in the apology letter, admitted a mistake had been made and promised it would never recur.

Ahmad, who reminded his staff on observing local sensitivities, said the studio would be reviewing its standard operating procedure to avoid such an incident.

Nyambek, whose 100m sprint time of 10.30s clocked in 1998 stood as the national record for 17 years, was bailed out of bankruptcy by former chief minister Adenan Satem, last year.

Nyambek was declared a bankrupt for failing to repay the loan he had taken to pay for his father’s cancer treatment. – April 24, 2017.