Just scrap the sports minister’s post, veteran tells govt

The government should have just done away with the sports minister’s post given the lack of concrete policies and long-term targets in elevating the standard of sport and its performance on the world stage over the years.

Former Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Sieh Kok Chi said it was also impossible to evaluate the successes of sports ministers over the years, as performance indicators are often shifted in their favour.

He was asked about the future of the country’s sports given that the country has seen four sports ministers since 2017 — Khairy Jamaluddin, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Reezal Merican Naina Merican and the incoming minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu.

Sieh, a veteran sports administrator and critic, said it was tough to rate ministers when their own KPIs are often evaluated based on medal targets set by the National Sports Council (MSN), which was under the auspices of the sports ministry.

He said that based on MSN’s efforts and targets, the ministers could claim themselves to be successful. He said this made it impossible to evaluate the successes or failures of the sports ministers themselves.

“Since ministers are evaluated on their medal targets at the Games, and the targets are set by MSN, one can say they were successful. Take for example the Olympic Games. Except for the 2004 Athens Olympics, we can say we have won medals since 1992.

“What I’m saying is that they keep shifting the goalposts, so it is impossible to evaluate ministers. There must be a change of policy from medals or elite-based evaluation to long-term evaluation.

“The main issue is that the ministers do not know what they want and they listen to MSN only, who are after the glamour of elite sports and the huge budget and perks they get.

“The ministers do not know what they want and what they are supposed to do. Perhaps they should change their title to minister of sports medals or something similar,” he told FMT.

Set ten-year target on sports development, not just medals

Sieh said that in his 25-odd years as secretary-general of the national Olympic council, he has seen eight sports ministers and finds it tough to say if any had been truly successful.

He said rather than focusing on medals, the country should switch to long-term goals in developing sports among the young in 10-year terms, roping in children at the age of 12 in the fields of athletics and swimming, for example.

OCM president Mohamad Norza Zakaria, however, hoped the incoming youth and sports minister Faizal would carry on the “strong legacy” of his predecessor Reezal Merican.

Norza also hoped Faizal would ensure OCM’s expanded role towards the 2024 Paris Olympics would remain unchanged.

“We also hope that Faizal will continue to support my push for a pension scheme for athletes. The incoming minister needs to look at the post-mortem of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And a decision must be made to ensure continuity of development programmes.” FMT

Just scrap the sports minister’s post, veteran tells govt

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