MP SPEAKS | The Malaysia Marathon, which was supposed to have taken place in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 1 has been abruptly cancelled less than a month before the run.
The cancellation was announced on the Malaysia Marathon website and facebook page on Sept 5.
On Sept 7, the Minister of Tourism, Nazri Abdul Aziz, announced that the reason for the cancellation of the marathon was because the organiser could not deliver its initial promise of bringing in 5,000 runners from China to participate in the run.
Not surprisingly, Malaysian runners vented their frustration via facebook including the FB page of the Malaysia Marathon.
At the time of writing, the FB posting for the cancellation of the race had received 371 comments, mostly negative.
The last-minute cancellation of running events is not a new occurrence in Malaysia. It has happened many times before, which is why I presented the results of a survey of Malaysian runners to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Khairy Jamaluddin, via his deputy, M Saravanan in Parliament on Aug 1, 2017.
Understandably, the minister has been busy with the 29th Kuala Lumpur SEA games and now, with the Paralympic games which starts on Sept 17.
But this last-minute cancellation raises a few questions which needs to be answered by the ministers of tourism as well as youth and sports, who are listed as the organisers of the Malaysia Marathon (together with DBKL and Wisdom Sports (M) Sdn Bhd).
Firstly, did the minister of tourism have any contingency plans in case the race organiser, Wisdom Sports, fails to bring the promised number of Chinese runners to Malaysia?
The minister should know that even for established marathons with more than 40,000 participants such as the Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon (SCKLM) and the Penang Bridge International Marathon (PBIM), the number of foreign participants was far less than 5,000, what more for a race that was supposed to attract only 20,000 participants.
Did the ministry ever consider the welfare of the Malaysian runners who had signed up for this race, some of whom had booked train, bus and plane tickets to travel to KL from other states to participate in this race?
Was the ministry not able to attract enough corporate sponsorship to help with the expenses for organising this race, even if there was an insufficient number of Chinese participants?
The explanation given by the minister of youth and sports for the cancellation of this event is not sufficient and shows that the minister does not care about the welfare of the Malaysian runners and tourists.
Secondly, the minister of youth and sports should inform the public if he had signed off on this event.
Section 33 of the Sports Development Act 1997 states that “no person shall bid to host any international sports competition or event in Malaysia without the prior approval in writing of the minister whose decision thereon shall be final”.
ONG KIAN MING is Serdang MP and head of Penang Institute in Kuala Lumpur. - Mkini
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