Politics and Sports Do Not Mix

It seems that after every round of flop in our sporting field, an immediate wave of change is sent in the hope of rectifying the root of the problem. Foreign coaches brought in, foreign coaches kicked out. We need you back, local experts. What happened to your team idiot? You, pack your stuff, out. Back off senior players, let us give this bunch of youths a chance to shine. And so on and so forth. The latest, which perhaps is the biggest, most shocking decision ever made in a decade, is shoving off political leaders from playing their hands in the managerial matters of sporting bodies. Quite obviously the idea was formulated in the wake of yet another disappointing slump of our national football in the recently concluded Asian Cup, with such a poor display that qualified us to be labeled as the only non-competitive team in the tournament by a prominent daily newspaper in Australia. The question being, why didn’t we show those sporting team managers cum political figures the exit door long, long before, before the little bruise that we had could turn into an incurable illness?

Malaysians from every part of generation have long questioned the credibility of these parliament dwellers in getting involved in our professional sporting bodies, let alone being the most influential figure in them. Apart from the suspicious lots who argue that these leaders are merely carrying political agendas in stepping up the managerial ladder of those bodies, the others who politely accept their integrity remain doubtful over their ability to bear the huge responsibility of leading a globally-acknowledged sporting body. Blame not the doubters, as we recognize the hard work needed in running such bodies which strive to continually produce top-notch athletes.

Recent headlines on this issue came as a laughing cause for me especially when you think about how easy those figures decided to pen down letters of resign upon listening to nationwide call for them to do so. From a logical point of view, I see that no one should be you willing to give off their top-notch position in those bodies if they love them so much, or if they are indeed committed in working with the sporting bodies. Because what happened is the opposite, my conclusion is pretty simple; they indeed did not enjoy being a member of such bodies let alone committing themselves in full swing, and perhaps it is not too much if I choose to concur with public view that says they indeed have unique agenda being in such position. Of course I am not aiming the whole bunch of those leaders by saying this. In every situation, I believe that there must be a good apple amongst the rotten ones. Unluckily the latter had gone overboard thus posing serious threat to the good few.

We cringed, cried in agony upon watching Hafiz Hashim fell shamefully in the hand of Lin Dan on the badminton arena. But little did we know that the Chinese fellow is a successful product of the system in China, where promising youths at the early age of eight, nine-year-old are brought into the sports school that exist in every province. I mean every province. Now, how big is China? We, on the other hand have only two nationwide. The similar case happened to Yao Ming, the first Chinese basketball player to shine in the NBA whose unusual height was traced two generations back, before he was even born. And we continue to wince when it was the football team’s turn to lose 1-5 to the mighty country. Of course the comparison I have made is unfair, but what I have in mind is that we need great people to come with this kind of idea in order to improve the quality of our sports. Like most of you, I believe that these people are definitely not politicians. Not intending to belittle them, but after all, what can you expect from a man who runs the floor of the parliament in the morning when what we are talking about is finding quality athletes? Quite simply the two cases do not run on a parallel ground.

Of course things are far from resolved even after those leaders give up their seats. The quest for success is not a short-term one; one cannot expect to shoot a bow and get immediate result. Act early, and make amend on things along the way. What we need right now is past athletes to come back and lead. In this matter, an article in TheStar last week provided ample reasons and justifications why such step is deemed instrumental if we are to look forward for a brighter future of our sports scene, one of which includes a look at the international football governing body in FIFA which is piloted by none other than the game’s legends. On the local scene, the appointment of Marina Chin as the new head of Bukit Jalil Sports School is seen as an excellent early move to realize our dream, at least for me.