Every people, every society, needs a culture of resistance, a culture of being difficult and disobedient, that is the only way they will ever be able to stand up to the inevitable abuse of power by whoever runs the state apparatus, the capitalists, the communists, the socialists, the Gandhians, whoever.
– Arundhati Roy, Indian author
Once again, the management of the Malaysian Olympic team found themselves in hot soup.
This time the issue is about accreditation for the Olympics given to Malaysia’s delegation and how it appears to be some anomaly in terms of how the quota is distributed.
By right, priority should be given to the athletes and their coaches to actually represent the country at the tournament.
It is their job after all. It is the job of the athletes to compete and their coaches to ensure that athletes remain in tip-top shape. This is expected.
The Olympics is one of the biggest sporting tournaments in the world, if not the biggest and of course accreditation passes will be limited as they had to accommodate all the participating contingents from across the world.
The quota that is allocated to each contingent, depending on the sports that they are competing in should be decided and distributed systematically.
There is no such thing as coaches or athletes unable to make the trip because the contingent exceeded their quota.
But that is not what happened – according to what has transpired this week. Apparently among those axed from the delegation were national women’s badminton player Goh Jin Wei’s coach, Nova Armada.
Another national men’s badminton player, Lee Zii Jia who won the Olympic bronze medal during the tournament, also suffered the same fate when his personal sparring partner and physiotherapist were not included in the delegation list.
Lee’s manager was quoted to have said that the two key officials for the athlete had to go to the Olympics on their own dimes, their presence allowed Lee to capture a medal of the country.
Okay, we understand passes are limited and not all athletes will have their requests met to bring other personnel to accompany them, but how does it explain the fact that some bigwigs are allowed to bring their families when they are obviously not the priority.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria was questioned
on the presence of his family members at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In response to concerns raised about his family’s accreditation, he clarified that he was granted a personal quota separate from the national team’s allocation.
He said: “As the president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and OCM, I am given a special allocation to bring my own guests. This quota is distinct and unrelated to the accreditation cards issued to athletes and the national team.”
The controversy erupted after a netizen on X posted a photo showing what appeared to be Norza’s wife and son wearing accreditation cards at one of the Olympic matches.
This is not a good look. Many netizens who are keen to defend the OCM president on social media has advised him to not use the term “special quota” and instead say that his family members were there on their own cost.
No such clarifications were issued which could have quelled public disenchantment. Instead, what transpired was that Norza succumbed to public pressure, announcing his immediate resignation from BAM.
This issue was the latest in a string of controversies for Malaysia’s Olympics contingent. The current Youth and Sports Minister was blamed for not being ‘hands-on’ in her duties.
The first issue arose over the poorly designed official attire for Malaysian Olympians, accompanied by underwhelming presentations and budgetary constraints cited by the OCM.
The public outrage was further fuelled by comparisons with other nations’ polished, sponsor-backed uniforms.
I like to think the veterans in the sports council have their own way of doing things. To them there are things that they find acceptable or has always been the norm.
It is time for that line to be re-drawn. Subpar competition attires and blaming it on lack of funding is a no-no. Same thing with bringing the whole family on a contingent quota. It may be acceptable 20 or 30 years ago but it sure is not acceptable now.
The world is changing and the old culture has to go and new blood has to come in and bring reforms to the industry.
While medal tallies and competition gold are the yardstick for measuring the nation’s success in sporting events, the governing bodies must do well to improve public confidence in their management.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
