Former Singapore Athletics (SA) executive director Malik Aljunied has been appointed acting chief executive officer of the Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF).
In an announcement on its website on Friday, the STF said he has been seconded from the Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) and began his new role on May 1.
Malik, 53, succeeds Phoi Kwok Eng, whom the STF said would be leaving with effect from tomorrow to pursue personal interests.
"We are thankful to Phoi for his service and contribution, and look forward to welcoming Malik to the STF family," the STF said in its statement.
Malik told The Straits Times that the acting CEO role with the STF is a concurrent appointment, as he continues leading the Shared Services office in the SNOC, which provides administrative support to national sports associations.
"I'm humbled by the trust and belief that SNOC, Sport Singapore and STF have placed upon me to do the job," he added. "I'm always passionate about how sport brings out the best in humanity and inspires the community for good.
"My immediate priority is to support the STF's board of directors to reinstate the STF's membership with World Taekwondo (WT), through fair and transparent processes and policies, so that we can operate in a professional environment with transparency and proper governance… (while) never losing sight of athletes' interests, welfare and well-being."
The STF has been suspended by the SNOC and WT since May 2019. Then, WT cited concerns over STF developments after the mass resignation of seven management committee members in October 2018 and how the matter was handled.
In an interview with ST last December, STF president Edwin Lee - elected two months earlier - said that the key requirement for the STF's suspension to be lifted by the SNOC and WT was broadly related to reviewing the areas of governance and high performance.
Malik stepped down as executive director of SA - where he had also been on SNOC secondment - last October, a month after SA elected its new leadership committee. Before joining the SNOC in 2019, he had spent two years at national agency Sport Singapore.
His SA tenure was marred by a dispute with the nation's top marathoner Soh Rui Yong.
In August 2019, Soh filed a defamation writ in the High Court - which hears cases where damages in excess of $250,000 are sought - against Malik for alleged defamatory comments in a Facebook post and remarks on the same post's thread.
But in February, Supreme Court judge Aedit Abdullah upheld last December's decision by the Assistant Registrar to transfer the case to the State Court after it was deemed that there was "nothing to support the assertion that (Soh) would be entitled to damages exceeding $250,000". Soh was also ordered to pay $20,000 in costs.
