• FAM's plea: Government agencies must come together and form life support system

THE MAN: Datuk Seri lamented the lack of Sport — a serious competitive spirit in our youths. cause for concern • By Lazarus Rokk ture begin to regress, and how did it "This not FAM's role, the Gov- and Vijesh Rai happen. Did the spirited thrust for ernment machinery, State FAs, [email protected] socio-economic affluence all but bury 'schools all must play their roles. This a rich and healthy sports culture. is not the time for pointing fingers,'" ANOTHER Prime Minister has said The truth, as Sports Minister said Tengku Abdullah in a telephone it, that Malaysian sport — espe- Datuk put it, conversation from Germany. cially football and badminton — has hurts. And the truth as we He is in Germany to study the greatly declined. know it, is that workings of two sports schools to get This time it was Datuk Seri Ab- Malaysian sport is being barely kept ideas on how best-to manage football dullah Ahmad Badawi who made alive by a life support system. academies here. this glaring observation on Saturday "The truth is painful, but we have Tengku Abdullah will also explore during the National Youth Day cel- to deal with it, and we are. I am the possibility of establishing ex- ebrations, further attributing, the looking at sports for all, elite sports, change programmes with clubs in cause of the malaise to a distinct lack and more importantly building a solid Frankfurt, Stuggart and Munich. of a competitive spirit in our youth, grassroots foundation," said Azalina. Education Minister Datuk Prior to this, it was his prede- But while the accent of frustra- respond- cessor Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mo- tions is mainly on the failure of ing to such claims, gave his as- hamad who had said the same about national associations to produce surance yesterday that three sports Malaysian sport. Dr Mahathir even champions and world beaters, and that Malaysians are most passion- went a step further by suggesting on athletes for their lack of desire ate about will get their due recog- that we should start looking at more .and patriotism, the contemptuous nition at the grassroots level. throughout the year has been di- sympathy votes from the world gov- Malaysian sport is also in this state foreigners to represent the nation by finger has also been pointed at the To Hishammuddin, who was the lapidated. erning body IMF, agree that athletes is because it progressively stopped according them citizenships. apathy of Government agencies. former Sports Minister, the three "Apart from that, our leading ath- don't have the killer instinct, and being a level playing field over the But the three prime ministers be- FA of deputy president sports that Malaysians love are foot- letes — apart from squash players that they are pampered. last 15 years. fore them however didn't need to Tengku Abdullah Sultan Ahmad ball, badminton, and hockey. Ong Beng Hee and Nicol David — Malaysian Hockey Federation And this is something that only make this observation as sports - Shah — one of the most abased Olympic Council of Malaysia sec- aren't prepared to have a go at the secretary S.Satgunam said: "Play- the Government can fix by taking namely badminton and football - sports officials in the country — in retary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi, in en- professional circuit. They must be ers lack the passion, and this is the steps to ensure that Malaysians, was a thriving culture under their acknowledging the sad state of af- dorsing Abdullah's observation, ex- encouraged to do that, we need feedback we got from our foreign irrespective of their ethnic back- respective leaderships. fairs of football, took a shot at Gov- plained that athletes are not as com- icons," said Kok Chi. counterparts. And we have to grounds and creed, are involved The questions that need to be ernment agencies that had failed to petitive now because the club struc- Malaysian hockey that also failed counter this." shoulder to shoulder in the restruc- asked are when did the sports cul- support the sport. ture that kept them combative on all fronts, but managed to garner But one of the main reasons why turing of Malaysian sport.