Amid the chaos during the Olympics from an athlete not having a coach to apologies and disqualification, why have the powers that be gone quiet about Sports ? What are the steps being taken to be on the winners platform again?
Hello? (Hello, hello, hello) / Is there anybody in there? / Just nod if you can hear me / Is there anyone home? / Come on … Those are the starting lyrics of the famous song by the popular rock band Pink Floyd. It has been more then a month since the Olympics, it seems like Malaysian Sports has come to a standstill after the Olympic debacle.
Malaysians seem blank (going by social media comments) now and given up on Malaysia going forward in the Olympics or the Asian Games or Commonwealth Games for that matter. We have the SEA games coming up this December in Thailand, we have the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games coming up in 2026 in Japan and Scotland and other marquee events like the Thomas Cup.
The Para-Olympics brought gold though and have brought gold on numerous occasions before, so been there done that, but the Olympic gold still eludes us, but the most disturbing thing in the Olympics was not that we did not win gold, but the cynicism and hostility towards our cyclist Azizul Hasni Awang when he was disqualified. It was as if some Malaysians were so frustrated, as they were pinning hopes on him to win gold that they could not handle the bitterness that Malaysia now left the Olympics without any gold. Social media was rife with unjust criticism towards him, strangely this was “Muhibbah” that we did not want. If there were keyboard warrior games, I am sure Malaysia would win gold every time.
Malaysians were not to blame, well for the unjust criticism towards our great cyclist who has won gold at World Championship and Asian level, yes they should be blamed for making unjust comments, but for feeling frustrated on the whole about Malaysian sports and Olympics…a big no.
Badminton has been an Olympic sport since 1992, yet we have not won gold. We won the Thomas Cup last in 1992 and in that time South Korea, Japan and India have become a powerhouse in badminton, both men and women’s category. Even Singapore won a World Championship in badminton before us and that was in the men’s singles category, the man was plucked from Penang at a young age (Low Kean Yew) and groomed by Singapore.
Hockey, we are going down and down and the recent 8-1 drubbing by India in the Asian Champions Trophy in China and lost to China, yes China! 4-2! shows we are getting worse … or have we reached rock bottom already? India did not field their full team against Malaysia, they went on to win the trophy beating China 1-0 in the final, yes China! The game was tight and India held on because of their tactical discipline and determination, but again … yet again another minnow (China) is now bound to be a giant and regular contender by the looks of it in hockey.
We once easily qualified for the Olympics and World Cup hockey tournament, now we are missing it and struggle to qualify for it. Football …well, less said the better, except for sports like bowling and squash and in some ways Karate, we are not going anywhere in mainstream sports. In track and field, we used to be the kings in South-East Asia, not anymore. To make matters worse, in sports like Taekwondo, there are more than three international bodies registered in Malaysia.
The Aftermath, but what now?
I could go on and on, but what and where are we going now? What is the road map? After the apology by Hannah Yeoh, our Youth & Sports Minister, on Malaysia’s performance in the Olympics, nothing much has been stated, but also what happened to the respective sports associations? Why have the respective chiefs not come out and given a road map for the years ahead?
The debacle of Goh Jin Wei our badminton player who did not get her coach for the Olympics in Paris, because he could not get accreditation due to limited passes is unbelievable and what happened to that? Where is the report on that and what is being done on it? OCM (Olympic Council of Malaysia) President Tan Sri Norza Zakaria who incidentally is the Badminton president of Malaysia said his accreditation is separate and that he has some passes for friends and family … but could he not given one for Jin Wei’s coach? How is this acceptable? Jin Wei won two World Badminton Junior Championships in 2015 and 2018, surely, she is a priority.
Everything is quiet now, meanwhile Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines have won gold in the Olympics so far, Philippines winning their first gold in the 2024 edition and added another one later in that Olympics.
It is going to be another ground hog day I am sure when Malaysia steps up to another major sporting event, but what are the powers that be doing? Should we have a new governance structure for sports? Some sports association like the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) have in the constitution (through their parent body, FIFA) that states that governments cannot interfere with the association’s activities or they will get banned, but if funding comes from the government, associations can work internally with government and still give a KPI. This can go for other associations too if they have a sports body with the same constitution.
The OCM also operates on a separate constitution, the Olympics attire debacle was … God, no words to describe it, it was a joke, a shambles and should not have happened, not in this time and age. Do we even care? Does anyone realise how bad this was? It is frightening to see that the powers that be are numb to the mediocrity of our administrators and they in turn are comfortably numb.
Something drastic has to happen, what and how? Ban politicians from having sporting posts? No, that cannot be the answer, there could be one idea that might be controversial, but might be the way.
Time For Chartered Sporting Administrators
We always had great sports administrators who held various posts at international and Asia level, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) had a few great leaders. From Tunku Abdul Rahman (Malaysia’s first Prime Minister) to Hamzah Abu Samah, the late Sultan Ahmad Shah and even some great General Secretaries like Peter Velappan who helped to structure and revamp the FIFA World Club Cup. The late Sultan Azlan Shah was also instrumental in the development of hockey and after his death, hockey seems to have been going downhill too. During Tunku Abdul Rahman, Sultan Azlan Shah and Hamzah Abu Samah’s reign, Malaysia had a golden era in football and hockey. Even now the current General Secretary of the AFC is a Malaysian, Windsor John.
We had great characters, like the great Gurchan Singh, who managed to fight the Japanese during the second world war, he was also the founder of the Malaysian Cycling Federation and founded the Asian Cycling Federation. He was also responsible for the first velodrome, cinder track for athletics and a hockey pitch. He unfortunately died in car accident in Batu Pahat, Johor in 1965. I could go on and on about various administrators in sports, but this is not what the article is about.
All this strong tradition and values should not be lost, we should come up with a qualification for a Chartered Sports Administrator (CSA). All those who have this qualification can hold positions like General-Secretary or even the post of President in sports associations, make this compulsory that to hold these two positions, you need to have these qualifications. This should be passed in parliament, in this way it is a positive move, rather than saying politicians should not be allowed, all are welcome, but by having this qualification, it shows dedication and commitment.
The royalty can still be patrons and, to be honest, they still hold weight because of their status and power and do not need to sit as President, they can be an adviser or patron. This does not mean things will change for the better immediately, but a licensing system for administrators will help. Even in coaching though, there is a licensing system, anyone can start or have a football academy or coach in any sport without license, this should also change if we aim to professionalize sports and raise the standards.
It will raise the quality of sports administration and coaching, gone are the days of great individuals, the likes of Hamzah Abu Samah or Peter Velappan and times change and now we need to professionalise, not by just saying it, but by making some concrete steps. I think the powers that be are taking things for granted, we are becoming worse because participation levels generally in sports is getting weaker.
When you have mass participation, we can get the cream of the crop, but right now we are not getting that. The politicking in associations should also stop, things need to be checked like biasness in selection in schools in-terms of sports selection and how are they selected? How can the Ministry of Youth & Sports work with the Ministry of Education? Is there a KPI? All these should go to the education curriculum of the mooted CSA as I mentioned here, those words “Majulah sukan negara kita” on our broadcast stations had some meaning before, we need to bring that feeling of being proud of Malaysia and sports is an important part of that equation. – NMH
Subendran A. Ravindran is a sports consultant specialising in fitness, football and track & field. He is a licensed coach in all and former reporter for various journals writing mainly on geo-politics, aviation, business and football. He has a facebook site https://www.facebook.com/kldropfit/ that gives free tips on fitness.
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