Malaysian sports declined under political instability - minister

Malaysian sports have suffered the impact of political instability in the five years leading up to the 15th general election, said Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.

Yeoh, who reviewed Malaysia’s worst-ever performance at the recently concluded Phnom Penh Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, said political instability had resulted in an inability to execute necessary planning and strategies for sports development.

“Apart from the economy, we see this now. (Decline in) sports is one of the most glaring outcome of instability.

“That is why, as what the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had decreed, for a time of stability, the five-year period is very important for us to work and deliver results,” said Yeoh at a joint press in Bukit Jalil today, alongside Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Norza Zakaria.

“Before this, there was a minister who was in office for less than a year. To follow through with the budget, to implement strategies, there was no time to do that before a change happened,” said Yeoh.

Meanwhile, National Sports Council (NSC) athlete division director Jefri Ngadirin reportedly attributed allegations of sexual harassment as among the reasons Malaysia’s cycling team did not perform up to expectations.

Bernama quoted him saying that a coach is alleged to have sexually harassed a woman mountain bike cyclist, which in turn negatively affected the team.

They were unable to defend their gold medal in the mixed team cross-country event and were unable to even achieve a podium finish.

“Although we resolved the issue, it had an indirect impact on the team’s performance during the Games as they could not prepare well, and one of the athletes sustained an injury during competition,” he was quoted as saying.

Post-mortem

Bernama also quoted Yeoh as saying that all national sports associations involved in the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia have been asked to submit post-mortems in the wake of Malaysia’s worst-ever showing in the biennial event.

She said the reports need to be sent along with their short-term and long-term plans that will determine the type of support they will receive from the NSC.

Sports that produced medals will be given support in terms of athlete management, coaching, training centres and exposure, along with local and foreign competitions, and support services from the National Sports Institute, she added.

“After receiving the reports, we will sit down together with the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to plan a paper that will be brought to the cabinet to consider the allocation. We will also discuss restructuring involving the development of new talent in the Education Ministry and Higher Education Ministry.

“The Youth and Sports Ministry cannot do things alone without the involvement of schools as 15-year-old athletes are now capable of winning gold medals,” she said.

Malaysia could only manage a seventh-place finish with 34 gold, 45 silver, and 97 bronze, its worst in the history of the Games since 1959, and failed to achieve the set target of 40-37-64.

Vietnam retained the title of overall champion with 136-105-118 while hosts Cambodia recorded their best showing with a fourth-place finish of 81-74-127.

Yeoh also said that before the Games even began, Malaysia had already lost 18 gold, 16 silver, and 30 bronze as the sports and events that were contested in Vietnam were not included, or reduced in the Cambodia Games.

“The hosts also held sports that were not popular in Malaysia like kun bokator, kun khmer, arnis, vovinam, ouk chaktrang, and xianqi chess, which offered a total of 93 gold medals.

“So from the start, we only had a chance to win 59 percent of the gold medals as we participated in 340 events out of a total of 579,” she explained.

She also urged the national sports associations to conduct institutional reforms so that sports in the country could progress, including Malaysia Swimming, to focus on new talent development as it was among the sports that offered a lot of gold medals, a total of 39 in Cambodia.

Impressive newbies

Yeoh also praised junior athletes and those who made their debut at the Games for their good performances, especially Umar Osman who won the gold in the men’s 400m with a new national record.

She said even though 62 percent (423) out of 674 athletes made their debut at the Games, 211 of them had podium finishes, and contributed 12 gold, 20 silver, and 46 bronze medals.

“Out of the 427 (63 percent) Under 23 athletes, 222 managed podium finishes with a haul of 18 gold, 21 silver, and 66 bronze medals.

“This is our strategy for the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand and 2027 in Malaysia, we are confident that our juniors can shine,” she said, adding that the political instability and low budgets had also affected the athletes’ performances negatively, as the sports ministry was among the those receiving the lowest budgets.

She said that sports development funds from Sports Toto had also dropped to around a third of what they were 10 years ago.

“(This is what happens) when we view sports only as recreation and focus on other ministries. But this year, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has given us a 10 percent increase, so we can do more grassroots programmes,” she added. - Mkini