Malaysia has been facing a bad run recently in sports and games. Many activities happening around has been disastrously giving us a bad reputation. We were touted as the Lion of Asia once. We have won the Thomas Cup a few times, played in the Hockey World Cup, our football team has qualified for the Olympics, and in squash, we won the world championships many times among others. Sadly, all these happened some time ago when athletes took part to make the country proud and sadly without many facilities. Money did not matter at all. Many of them were in fact employed and had a job to do. They were not full time. They were just given an allowance for training and playing for the country. Another point to ponder is, that at that time representing the country was a ticket to getting employed. The bulk of Malaysian Sportspeople was employed by PKNS, TNB, MPK and even Banks. The Late Datuk Mokhtar Dahari and Datuk Arumugam as well as Datuk Soh Chin Aun were gainfully employed by PKNS. Athletes like the Late Istiaq Mubarak and Sri Shanmuganathan were employed by Maybank and CIMB respectively. There were not millionaires but had the satisfaction of representing Malaysia. Come today, many sportspeople are being paid by sports organisations as well as being sponsored by blue-chip companies and none of them needs a job. With the money earned, they can afford to drive flashy cars and enjoy a millionaire lifestyle. Are our sportspeople spoiled to the core?
Sadly, we have been going through bad times lately. In the SEA Games, we had a very poor finish. Malaysians are alarmed and unhappy. We were placed 6th with a medal tally of 39 gold medals. Although we reached the target of 36 gold medals this show is an embarrassment for the country which was once a powerhouse in Asia. Comparatively, Vietnam which topped the list had 206 gold medals which is four times more than Malaysia. Even our neighbours put us to shame with 47 medals. This is a real letdown. Singapore with a population of about 5.5 million has fared much better than us with a population of about 32 million. How is this possible? Don’t say that we don’t have enough facilities. It will be a blatant lie if we say this. It will be the mockery of the year? We had about 500 athletes representing Malaysia. Singapore had about 330 athletes but when we compare the performance we can conclude that most Malaysian were there only for a holiday. Simply, a waste of taxpayers’ money.
Another discomfiture is the performance in the recent Thomas tournament. We didn’t even make it to the semis. Our show was even worst in the Uber Cup. We have about 11 badminton coaches in Malaysia and state of the art facilities. I believe each singles player has a coach. As for doubles, each team is under a coach too. And, these coaches have all been world beaters with a lot of international experience. The players too are regularly sent to overseas tournaments for exposure so how can we digest such poor results in the Thomas and Uber Cup. With so much money spent it goes on to show that it has been a real waste. With the country suffering a financial burnout the government should look into this matter. There must be a standard as to who can be sent oversea for tournaments. I don’t mean to be blunt and rude but can we train a donkey to perform like a horse?
Frustrated By Nicola Barts from Pexels
Performances in other sports have nothing to shout about too. Our football team has always been a punching bag for others. We were knocked out in the semis in football by Vietnam in the SEA games. Vietnam with a Korean coach eventually won the gold medal. Their Women’s team also won the gold. Why has our football team been mediocre in their performance? We have a good coach too. Don’t our players have the burning desire to do well or that’s the best we can perform? There was a joke running along these lines, A football-crazy old Japanese man asked God when will Japan win the World Cup, and God answered! In about 20 years. He was happy and remarked, “I will be alive then” . Then a Malaysian asked God. What do you think happened. God cried heavily and answered “when I am dead”. Don’t our football players want to prove God wrong?
Only the diving team performed to our expectations. They have the potential to do even better. Kudos to Pandelela and the team. We hope we have more sportspeople who are of their standard. Such a standard is expected as Malaysian sportsmen and women cannot complain that they don’t have the facilities. It’s either they didn’t work hard enough or it’s just not in their genes. They were not built to do any better. That’s the best. Even if they trained more or harder that will be the best. Once again I would like to give an example using the donkey. Although the donkey and a horse look physically the same. I mean four legs, tail, eyes and the body among others. You can’t train the donkey to be a horse as their genetic composition and DNA are very different. Horses are race animals but donkeys are made to carry loads and for transportation. But, the fact is many Malaysian Sportspeople have proved this theory wrong. So, why can’t the present athletes do the same? Come on Malaysian Officials athletes, you can do better. If you can’t quit and pass the responsibility to others. They may do better. It’s a shame you still want to be in as a passenger and be an embarrassment.
Palaniappan Karuppan is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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