Tell us something new & let us walk the talk!

I don't know whether to laugh or get angry, after hearing one politician speak and read another civil servant write, about sports.

The first incident was on Saturday night when over TV3 sports news, Deputy Sports Minister, Datuk Razali Ibrahim, was commenting about the Malaysian U-23 team's qualification to the Laos Sea Games soccer semifinals after beating Thailand 2-1 in their last Group A match.

This is what I heard him say in the interview: "We have been trying to find a solution in politics, but it is here in sports."

I presume what he meant was the nation coming together in sports.

But really, did he not know that and it took the match in Vientiane for him to discover that, I am lost for words. And he is the Deputy Sports Minister.

It is common knowledge not only in Malaysia, but globally that sports has no barriers, it can bring different races, cultures and religions together and has resolved many political crisis.

I was really shocked at his statement.

Or was it that he just wanted to say something for television, but it came out all wrong!

Then, today in The Sunday Star, the Director-general of the Ministry of Education,Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom, in the column At Your Service, speaks at greats lengths on the benefits of sports in school and how it builds character and nation. (Read here)

This is the same person in July, who had said that learning hours for Music, Physical Education and Science may be reduced by 45 minutes each to accommodate the extended hours for English Language. (Read here)

Today he is preaching of the good of sports in schools which is a known factor and many quarters have been trying in vain to get the Educations system in Malaysia to give emphasis.

So why the change of tune then Tan Sri? Has it got to anything with the Deputy Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's recent speech at his former school, that he wants to make a policy so that sports is compulsory in schools. (Read here)

It certainly looks like Alimuddin is patronising Muhyiddin.

I totally agree with what Alimuddin has written in his article today, but instead of talking about it,(although his stance seemed different earlier when a solution was sought to see the English language get more hours of teaching in school) get down to being action orientated.

It is about time something concrete is done about sports in schools, and instead of all the lip servicing, lets see some policy changes as Muhyiddin has suggested.

Is this going to happen?

Let us just wait and see like we have done all these years.

When we have politicians and civil servants not knowing what they are saying and even worse, they do not even know what sports is all about. It is little wonder that Malaysian sports is taking a very consistent slide downwards.

It is not bad enough having sports officials who are more interested in personal gains and glories sitting pretty as administrators, now we the decisions makers at the highest level now sending more shivers to Malaysian sports with their indecisiveness and lack of understanding of the values of sports.

Sports is beautiful, lets not make a mockery out of it!