One regurgitated figures. The other reiterated past calls while several others were left pondering who should rightfully be cracking the whip in the pursuit of sporting excellence in Malaysia.
Such was the tale at the banquet hall on the second floor of the National Sports Council’s (NSC) Casa 4 building in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, this morning, with some suggesting that the 11 officials who faced the Press seemed to be at sea.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh provided statistics of how the Malaysian contingent fared at the just-concluded Cambodia SEA Games, stressing it was not the worst outing as widely described and that many of the younger athletes showed much potential.
Malaysia won 34 gold, 45 silver and 96 bronze medals. Of the 34 gold medals, 18 were by athletes aged 23 and below.
Yet, it still fell short of the 40 gold medal target, despite the contingent winning more medals of all colours (175) from the 141 projected. NSC even admitted that the earlier target was 48 gold medals before the reduced number was made public.
Those who have been in the scene long enough readily admitted that the RM1.3 million outing was forgettable, regardless of how one tries to sugarcoat it.
Bottom line, the contingent of 674 athletes missed the target by six gold medals.
Chef de Mission Datuk Nasir Ali was forthcoming with his remarks at the beginning of the press conference, describing the outcome in Phom Penh as “a big lesson to all of us”.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria went on to call a spade a spade. Words like “total reset”, “OCM being merely a glorified travel agent”, and “institutional reforms” rang in the hall again.
Norza has uttered such words repeatedly in the past, in addition to taking issue with the governing bodies of athletics and swimming – ironically headed by the same person, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, the MP for Arau.
“I knew this (poor outing) was coming. When we see changes in government, sports is always sidelined,” said Norza.
“This (result) is a blessing (in disguise). We are lagging far behind Vietnam, Thailand and even Indonesia. We should be in the top three, but we are not.”
Vietnam topped the medal table with 136 gold medals – 102 gold medals more than seventh-placed Malaysia. Thailand came in second with 108 gold medals, while Indonesia secured the third spot with 87 gold medals. Singapore, placed sixth, returned with 51 gold medals.
“This is about collective responsibility, but OCM is never part of the programme, serving as a glorified travel agent. We are part of the selection process, and we send the athletes.
“Our model of sports is old. We need to change. It’s a good start where we have the Road To Gold (programme). There must be institutional reforms.
“There’s an elephant in the room – athletics and swimming,” he added, responding to the five gold medals won in track and field events and one gold medal from swimming in Cambodia, despite both sports having many events.
For the record, the Malaysian diving team won all four gold medals contested.
If Norza had his way, he would like OCM to play a bigger role in charting the fortunes of elite sports at all levels, similar to the Road To Gold programme.
But the idea of empowering sports associations is not new and has been done before, only for funds to be mismanaged and abused.
Instead, associations started relying heavily on NSC – the funding arm of the ministry. But it is not NSC’s role to churn out talents.
The council doesn’t have the expertise, apart from several coaches on its payroll.
At the press conference, NSC was represented by its deputy director-gerenals Suhardi Alias, and Abdul Rashid Yaakub, and athletes division director Jefri Ngadirin. Others at the press conference were deputy youth and sports minister Adam Adli Abdul Halim, the ministry’s secretary-general, Dr K.Nagulendran, National Sports Institute chief executive officer Ahmad Faedzal Md Ramli and the two deputy CDMs Sharon Wee and Datuk Shalin Zulkifli.
Should NSC be allowed to crack the whip? It can only do so by not providing funds. That’s it.
The only alternative is for NSC and OCM to work together, but the national sports associations must take proactive measures. They are the guardians of the sport and affiliated to the international federations.
Reforms and reset are necessary, but OCM, NSC and even the ministry must be mindful of its limited jurisdiction. In short, they need to know their roles.
The other issue that must be addressed is the almost non-existent relationship between the decision-makers, private clubs and school administrators – thus limiting the talent pool.
Typically, another round of post-mortem will take place. And the results would not differ from the poor outing seen in the last few editions of the SEA Games, begging the question – haven’t we learnt anything from the many post mortems, workshops and town hall sessions held previously?
Any attempt to smokescreen or “hype the positives” from Malaysia’s performance at the SEA Games is pathetic.
The trip was a failure, the result of a series of failures over the years.
In moving forward, there must be real changes. There are conversations about only sending those aged 23 and under for the regional Games.
Others believe Malaysia should firm up its core sports list and pay full attention to those sports, while others believe it’s high time for a merit system to kick in – ensuring only associations with a solid plan get the attention and funding.
There must be zero government interference. No phone calls from the higher-ups insisting certain sports be included for multi-sports Games or programmes to be in the good books of certain parties.
Political instability should also not be used as an excuse as sports is supposed to be bigger than politics.
The stakeholders can send a strong message by getting the Malaysia Athletics Federation and Malaysia Swimming to explain their poor performances in the SEA Games and to keep them on a watchlist.
If they fail again, they should be stripped of government funding.
However, given that everything is politicised in Malaysia, would the current government choose to take such a measure against the two associations headed by Shahidan – who happens to be from the opposition – ahead of several state elections?
Here’s where the real test lies: to do what’s best for Malaysian sports or to continue doing what’s popular?
