REST IN PEACE JASWANT

JASWANT’S UNDYING LOVE FOR FOOTBALL

The late DSP (Rtd) Jaswant Singh is among the rare breed of football lovers who did so much for game, but who was hardly in the limelight.

Jaswant in his 80s passed away today and may not even remember him because he was from the 60s to 80s era.

He founded the Malays, Indian, Chinese and Others FC (MICO) in the 70s – a club formed for boys staying around Cheras and they trained at the JKR field.

He was president, manager and coach all wrapped out in one.

Jaswant was also a referee from the 60s and rose to become national and then FIFA referee for a couple of years. After he retired as a referee he was the referees assessor with FA of Malaysia.

He was national referee in an era we had many notable referees like S. Kathirvale, Othman Omar, Koh Guan Kiat and Mohd Noh Saud to name a few.

MICO played in the Selangor League initially before crossing over to Kuala Lumpur FA.

Jaswant was among the pioneers members, led by former FA of Selangor secretary, late K. Rasalingam who passed on recently, who were founder members of KLFA in 1975.
Other founder members include the late Goh Ah Chai, late Hamzah Muhammad, late Shaeiff Mustafa, late T, Manickarajah and M.J. Vincent.

“In 1977 when KLFA organised their first League, Jeswant’s team MICO were given the honour to kick-off the inaugural league match  to play against Bunga Raya FC in a Division match at the Merdeka Stadium witnessed by the first president of KLFA late Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah,” said Datuk K. Sabaratnam a former referee with Selangor who crossed over to KL and was a former Council member of KLFA for decades.

 “Jaswant besides coaching and managing his team, being a founder member of KLFA, he played a key role in the development of referees in KL besides having refereed in the League. He was also manager of KL youth teams” said Sabaratnam who was KLFA referees board chairman too.

Datuk George Joseph, former FIFA referee, who was one of the linesmen at the Merdeka tournament where Jaswant was refereeing to attain his FIFA badge in the late 80s said the deceased was passionate about refereeing and always gave his best.

“Those days the Merdeka tournament was one of the few international tournaments where referees were assessed for the FIFA badge and we had referees from Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore doing their assessment,” said George.

Another former police officer, Geoffery Sivanathan, said Jaswant was a gentleman, caring, a joker and live-wire of any gathering but committed in whatever he did.

“I and five players others from our village – Air Panas in Setapak – played for MICO for two years from 1978. In the first year we won the Division One title,” recalled the 61 year-old Geoffery.

“Datuk Santokh Singh, also from Air Panas, told a few of us that there was no place in the Air Panas team – Hotspurs – which was laden with talent and told us to play for teams outside the village if we wanted to improve our game.

“We went to join a team in Kampong Pandan and we did not like it. Then we heard of Mico in Cheraa and went to join them, although we had to travel a distance from Air Panas. The rest was history and Jaswant played a key role in moulding us.

“I became a police officer because of Jaswant who submitted my application form,” said Geoffery whose late father was a police officer.

“When I wanted to apply for a job in the Police earlier, my father torn up my application. It was Jaswant who sent in my application much later and I got the job.”

Former KL and international goalkeeper, M. Pavalamani, said Jaswant recruited him to play for MICO when he was playing for the KL Razak Cup team in 1982.

“I played for a season for MICO, as I also stayed in Cheras. It was memorable moments with Jaswant who was so passionate about the game and trying to mould players from the area,” said Pavalamani.

I have personally known Jaswant since I first started reporting in the late 70s.

I even managed to persuade Jaswant to coach the KL Malay Mail FC team for a season.

He was stickler for fitness and a no nonsense coach, but a great friend and company.

The KL Malay Mail FC team with Jaswant went for a training stint which included matches in Manila and Baguio City in Philippines.

Fond memories will always be remembered by all whom Jaswant had touched through the beautiful game of football.

Rest in peace dear Jaswant coach, manager, referee and friend.