Is the deputy sports minister a loose cannon or straight shooter?

 

One day into the job, deputy youth and sports minister Adam Adli was accused of being a smear-monger.

Five days after his quick-as-a-flash spite at his first press conference, he has yet to justify his allegation that national sports associations are bathed in corruption.

He didn’t sound smart when he said a lack of gold medals from international championships was linked to corruption in sports bodies. He did not elaborate.

Adam rambled on about the importance of the national sports arena being free of corruption, inefficiency, and leakages, in order to raise Malaysian sports to a higher level.

He left it at that and walked straight into a war with the very people with whom he would be working to address the manifold problems facing Malaysia sport.

Furious sports leaders have thrashed Adam for his thumping of sports bodies and have questioned whether he is the right person for the job.

They want Adam to retract his “cheap shot” and justify his accusation, or say sorry.

One called him a “loose cannon”, another threatened him with legal action.

The pack hunting down Adam said it was a “bit rich” for him to prattle on about corruption while entirely overlooking actual sports scandals in the youth and sports ministry.

The real disgrace: the ministry’s RM107 million embezzlement scandal in 2016; and the disclosure in 2018 that its weaknesses in the procurement and payment process made it number eight out of 25 graft-riddled ministries.

Then, there is the refusal by the ministry to make public the financial details about the 2017 Sea Games.

We still don’t know why the advice of the podium programme enhancement committee for a financial audit to be done on the multi-million podium programme was shelved.

This is a ministry in desperate need of reform, having endured criminality and suffered criticism for its abysmal fiscal record.

Adam has unwisely presented himself as being still that youth activist who was often brazen, and almost always controversial.

If he cannot substantiate his claim, he must apologise for his lazy statement which has hurt well-run associations, including those managed by volunteers.

Will youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh, who is cheered on as one with a “human touch”, come to the aid of “out of touch” Adam?

Yeoh herself has drawn disapproval by saying at her maiden press conference that she will look at the names of politicians who are at the helm of sports associations.

“If they can perform their role well, then they can continue,” she said. Madam, please enlighten us how you plan to remove elected association heads?

Yeoh also said allocations for the associations may be made public in the future, “so that everyone knows where the budget went and what it has been spent on.”

Madam, these allocations are all recorded in the accounts of every association and are already accessible to the public.

Malaysian sport is in decline and demands substance, not ill-informed leaders who upset the sporting fraternity with baseless claims and careless remarks.

The obstacles ahead are daunting, but not insurmountable.

Yeoh and Adam must have “grown-up discussions” with the stakeholders to get an understanding of how sporting bodies are run.

There is urgency to recognise their needs, such as the use of the best technology and elite trainers.

For athletes to excel at the highest level, it is about money. Almost all sporting bodies struggle with funding, part of which is provided by the national sports council, and the rest raised through private sponsorship.

Unlike many countries that produce world-class athletes with enough government funding, Malaysians have to go looking for money. The associations have had to plead for proper funding as ministers walked a tightrope between fiscal responsibility and the incessant clamour for more public spending.

It didn’t help that there have been several sports ministers since the 2018 general election, a period when political instability troubled Malaysia.

The reality is that missteps, policy blunders and incompetence by the government have severely damaged Malaysian sport. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.