KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysia DanceSport Federation (MYDF) has finally been accepted as an associate member by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) after 12 years of being consistently turned down.
Speaking to The Vibes, MYDF deputy president John Fam said the long wait has finally come to an end.
“After waiting for more than 12 years, we are extremely delighted to be accepted by the OCM as an associate member.
“This makes us very happy and I would like to thank OCM’s board of directors for considering our application and inducting us as an associate member of the governing body,” he said.
Fam said the federation will now go through an apprenticeship period of six months before being accepted as a full member.
“As an associate member, we will have all the privileges OCM ordinary members have, except the ability to vote within the council,” he said.
He added that as an associate member of OCM, MYDF now has the opportunity to prepare more effectively for upcoming competitions. These include the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games, and 2023 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Bangkok.
Previously, MYDF’s application to become an associate member with OCM had been turned down, even though the federation was registered under the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF).
The situation was rather perplexing as another association, the Malaysian DanceSport Berhad (MDSB), and not MYDF, was the sole dancesport entity registered with OCM.
MYDF’s requests to be registered as a member always led to the same explanation, with OCM saying that MDSB is already a member and as such the council could not admit another entity from the same sport.
Later on, OCM had confirmed that it had terminated MDSB’s membership as it had lost its recognition from the world governing body, WDSF.
This then allowed MYDF to apply once again for membership with the council as OCM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria said the dancesport association needed to be affiliated with a recognised international federation, namely the WDSF. As it so happened, MYDF was already a part of the global body. – The Vibes, September 29, 2022
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