[Watch] Former Paralympic Champion Koh Lee Peng Seen Crying in Bukit Bintang, Raising Fresh Concern Over Athlete Welfare
Her plight had been reported before, but a video of the decorated Paralympian visibly breaking down at her usual spot in Bukit Bintang this week suggested that awareness alone had changed little.
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She has been seen here before — in Bukit Bintang, selling tissues from her wheelchair along the walkway.
Her story had already made the rounds online.
But when a video emerged this week showing Koh Lee Peng in tears, visibly breaking down in public at the same spot, something shifted.
A seven-time ASEAN Para Games gold medallist, reduced to selling tissues to survive — that had already been reported.
But crying in the street is different.
That is not a backstory; that is a person at a breaking point.
The clip, posted on Facebook by user Oscar Lye on 7 May, has since drawn over one million views and 6,800 reactions.
The Years Between the Medals and the Wheelchair Outside the Mall
Commenters speculated that her motorised wheelchair may have been damaged after being struck by a passing vehicle — though no official confirmation has been made.
Others simply said: a person does not cry in the middle of the street unless they have truly broken down.
Koh began selling tissues in 2019 after leaving office employment, reportedly due to accessibility barriers.
She has continued doing so since, largely without institutional support.
Koh, who represented Malaysia at the ASEAN Para Games from 2001 to 2005, is wheelchair-bound due to cerebral palsy, which has paralysed both her legs.
The System Says It Tried
In 2023, the National Athletes Welfare Foundation (Yakeb) denied claims of neglect, stating that assistance had been offered to Koh — which she reportedly declined — and while the government committed in 2016 to lifetime pensions for past Paralympic medallists, Koh receives RM450 a month, a figure that has not been reported to have changed since her retirement.
That allowance does not cover rent in Kuala Lumpur, nor the maintenance of a motorised wheelchair.
No response has been issued by the Paralympic Council of Malaysia or relevant welfare agencies at the time of publication.
What Yakeb administers is discretionary welfare, not a structured pension.
One commenter put it plainly: “I buy a pack instead of handing money directly — because they want to earn it, not be given it.”
It was, many felt, the most dignified response in Lye’s post — and perhaps the most honest one.
READ MORE: Former Paralympic Athlete Now Selling Tissue Covers In Bukit Bintang, Netizens Heartbroken
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