We’ve all watched movies where the underdogs beat the odds with someone cheering them on, the great success and achieving dreams, from Rocky to Invictus.
In the movie, Field of Dreams, the actor Kevin Costner plays the part of a farmer who dreams of building a baseball diamond. 'Build it and they will come', said the voice in his head.
Here in Malaysia, it seems like dreams like these can turn into nightmares in a blink of an eye.
The past few months have been very difficult for the Malaysian sports industry, especially for everyone involved. As Covid-19 has wreaked havoc with our economy, health, employment and our way of life, a new norm has to be adopted to survive.
2020 is quickly becoming a year where one must adapt to survive and those who do, are better prepared and will thrive.
Sports events and tournaments globally have been adversely affected and lately, we see how other countries are adapting.
Those involved ensure that sportspeople and billions - I dare say - whose livelihoods depend on sports can survive.
Here in Malaysia however, that thought process or empathy has been sorely lacking.
Time and time again, our esteemed politicians continue to live in ivory towers, behaving like they can ignore suggestions to evolve the SOP’s to suit the times.
What is even more frustrating is that five Federal Ministers and the Deputy Speaker in the current administration have been Youth & Sports Ministers in the past. They are:-
1. Tan Sri Datuk Seri Panglima Annuar Haji Musa (1990 - 1993)
2. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (1995 - 1999)
3. Dato Seri Hishammuddin Hussein (1999 - 2004)
4. Dato Seri Azalina Othman Said (2004 - 2008)
5. Dato Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (2008 - 2009)
6. YB Khairy Jamaluddin (2013 - 2018)
Despite making commitments in the past to support and help our sportspeople and the industry, none of them has said anything in the past few months to help our local athletes.
Their silence in Parliament has been deafening.
It has also come to our attention that several government agencies who are tasked with looking after our athletes both at the state and national level are currently looking at ways and means to “offload” some of the athletes due to budget cuts.
Citing “non-performance” clauses in a year when there have been little or no events to compete in, leaving a bad taste.
Adding insult to injured athletes is the fact that athletes injured in state and national meets have also been called in and questioned.
While it is widely known by these bodies how these athletes are being treated. This sets a terrible precedent as many of our athletes have committed their best years to the nation.
Many of them train full time and spend a huge portion of their earnings on food and equipment for high levels of performance.
And many of us at The Vibes know and interact with many of them and see that even though as a nation we revere them, they are often forgotten and left disillusioned after their careers.
Moreover, most of our athletes, both in state and national teams live on a stipend between RM500 to RM2000 per month. Ironically, the National Poverty level indicator is RM2,208 per month.
So, now we have Federal Ministers with in-depth knowledge of sports, living in their ivory towers flying around in Business Class and knowing full well the impact of their lack of input in the Parliament will cause many to suffer. There can be no excuse for this anymore.
Looking ahead to 2021 and the Japan Olympics as well as the Hanoi SEA Games, there will be unrealistic goals set for these very same athletes as they vie for honours in both local and international meets to qualify and represent our beloved country.
Just this past week, we had former National Sportsman on the year 2002 and World Production Rally Champion, Karamjit Singh’s plight become public. Promised an RM5000 monthly pension in 2005, he still awaits the slow-moving bureaucracy to catch up to 2020 and pay him his dues.
Right here at The Vibes, we have been striving to support and highlight good governance and champions of our sport, both on and off the field. It is also part of our responsibility to shine the light on those who suck the life out of our sports just the same.
So the Sportsguru hopes...that the inhabitants in ivory towers live with the same stipend that they force upon most of our athletes without the need of training and getting injured of course. We wouldn’t want to wish harm on our fellow Rakyat now, would we?
