Pathetic state of Malaysian sports

OCM secretary-general Sieh Kok Chi says this is because of the death of sports clubs and weak sports associations.

PETALING JAYA: The grand old man of the Olympic Council of Malaysia Sieh Kok Chi says the pathetic state of Malaysian sports is because of the death of sports clubs.

Sieh,74, who has been the OCM secretary-general since 1992, said without sports clubs the state sports associations are weak.

“The existing sports structure has not undergone any major changes or transformation, to keep abreast with the changes. One of the biggest change is the death of clubs.

“Today there are only two sports clubs left, which are the Sultan Sulaiman Club and the Selangor Chinwoo Athletics Association (SCAA), and the two clubs no longer have sports teams,” he told FMT.

He further explained that the sports structure in Malaysia is based on the state-federal system where the state sports associations are first formed and they together then form the National Sports Associations.

“However, the clubs form the state sports associations. But since the clubs have died, then the state sports associations are sitting on very weak foundations.

He added that most state sports associations are weak because they do not have strong sports clubs to carry out development.

“So the state sports associations fall back on the schools and the parents to develop the young athletes. In some sports, many training centres and academies have been established to train young athletes for a fee.

“They are the feeder system, providing talented young athletes to the states and the national sports associations,” he said.

Responding to whether Malaysia is producing enough talents, Sieh contended that no one really knows the answer to that.

“For production of talents, the schools, the centres and the academies are doing the basic ground work for producing talents. Are they sufficient? No one knows,” he said.

Sukma still relevant

When asked about the relevance of the Malaysian Games (Sukma), he commented that Sukma is still relevant because school-leavers in particular are deprived of sporting opportunities.

“Sukma is still relevant because school-leavers have no or limited opportunities to compete. Hence there may be a need to evaluate and organise Sukma for school leavers of the age of 21 and above,” he said.

Sieh added that Sukma is only a platform for the athletes to display their talents.

“Did Sukma produce the national athletes or were they already good when they were able to win gold medals at Sukma? The latter statement is more accurate.

“Sukma is only a platform for them to compete and display their talents as it is not a development platform,” said Sieh.

However, he said that although Sukma can claim that most of the national athletes were produced through Sukma, so too, can the schools.

“The truth is, it was team work that produced good results,” he said.

Admitting that Sukma follow-ups are bad, especially to the second liners, he said that this was because there is no development programmes at the state level due to the lack of capacity and resources, such as lack of funds.

“The government should provide some funds to state associations and also to training centres to train the second liners,” he said.