Sawarak the sports hub

S’wak on road to excellence
BY TONY MARIADASS

KUCHING: If only the other states’ sports councils and state governments in the country can emulate Sarawak, Malaysian sports will be placed on a firm footing for the future.
Sarawak is the one State that just do not sit round waiting for handouts from the Federal Government. It initiated many sports programmes on their own.
Yes, they do get assistance from the Federal Government through the National Sports Council’s branch in Kuching, but it is the action-orientated and foresight of the State Sports Council headed by the Minister of the Social Development and Urbanisation Ministry, Dato Sri William Mawan, that has put sports programmes for Sarawak in place.
However, Sarawak’s sport prowess is not recent. Sarawak produced top level athletes as early as the 60s when Kuda Ditta became the first Sarawak-born athlete to qualify for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Sarawak’s real prowess actually made its mark starting from the late 80s.
Much credit of Sarawak’s rise can be attributed to the hosting of Sukma for the first time here in 2002.
I was there personally as a guest of the Sarawak Sports Council for the pre-Games tour and I covered the Games eventually.
Sarawak emerged as Sukma champions for the first time that year and it was no surprise seeing all the work they had put into the preparation. It was one of the best Games organised and Sarawak raised the bar for the rest to emulate.
The Games also saw sports facilities in the State being improved tremendously. It was an essential ingredient for sports to grow.
Not only had Sarawak emerge as overall champions, but they did better by continuing with their commitment towards excellence in sports, especially at the youth level.
It cannot be denied that the setting up of the Sarawak State Sports Council under the National Sports Council Malaysia Act 1971, Schedule ll (amendments) 1979 which was officially established on October 10th 1985 by the Chief Minister of Sarawak, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, was what set Sarawak sports in motion.
Among the Sarawak athletes who have done the State proud include the likes of Salomon Ismanto, Bujang Taha, Ballang Lasung, Gladys Chai, Albert Blassan, William Yeo and Suhali Yusuf.
Sarawak’s next generation of athletes emerged with the likes of Jong Nyan Chong, Jessica Lau. Lee Chiew Ha, Suhari Salem, Mazlan Wahid, Shafie Ali, Jackson Ting, and Jonathan Lim.
Among the more famous names to emerge in recent times include Watson Nyambek and Sapok Biki.
Watson has the proud record of having broken the national record for the 100m in 10.46 seconds set by Datuk Dr Mani Jegathesan, when he clocked 10.33s, while Sapok did the nation proud by becoming the first Malaysian ever to win a gold medal in boxing at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
Without doubt, Sarawak has an abundance of talent. The question is: who has the task of spotting these talents and nurturing them into international athletes.
Sarawak is certainly not sitting around doing nothing and hoping for talent to emerge.
They have always given sports priority and work hard at it with constant updating in systems, strategies, knowledge and improving sports facilities.
Having realised their initial vision to become a sports powerhouse by 2010, they are now embarking on the journey to the next level to become even more prominent by 2020.
The most recent effort is the appointment of the Australian Business Centre (ABC) as consultants for the State’s Sports Development Master Plan Study in their efforts to become a national and regional sports powerhouse by 2020.
The project involves formulating a comprehensive long-term strategic plan for the State immediately running up to 2020.
More importantly, the State has realised that the move to the next level requires a professional setup and management.
The development programme will involve 40 sports associations and that is a huge task at hand. It will be two prong-attack where besides strengthening the potential high performance sports and looking into proper management, maintenance, promotion and marketing of all existing Stadias and sporting facilities, the future is given equal emphasis with greater grassroots programes and participation, especially at schools.
Private sectors and non-governmental bodies will also be roped in for the State agenda and their involvement, especially in sponsorships will play a key role in the extent of the success of this vision.
Already sports like tenpin bowling and soccer have good programmes in place.
While a national training centre has been set up here for ten-pin bowling, with former national bowler, Jackson Ting in-charge, the Sarawak Football Association, have recently launched a long-term development programme involving schools.
Soccer also has former soccer coach and manager, Alan Vest, from Australia coming regularly as a part-time technical director, to conduct coaching courses to upgrade the level of coaches and impart the latest knowledge on the game.
Diving will also have a Centre of Excellence in place later this year and this recognition of Sarawak’s prowess in the sport.
In the past, Sarawak in their eagerness to upgrade sports in the State, have made some mistakes in engaging the wrong people, but they are certainly wiser and moving in the right direction now.
Other states had better watch out for Sarawak. It is already making an impact at national level in various sports.
The underlying factor in Sarawak’s success story is that they always have long-term plans and have more often than not, got the right people to chart their upward trend.
Sarawak certainly has the right attitude for sports and their persistence to excel, will certainly be seeing many more athletes from the Land of the Hornbills soar to greater heights and do the State and nation proud.
Keep up the good work, Sarawak. Then you will definitely be an example for many states to emulate!

Will new lease become a reality soon?

This story appeared in the Eastern Times today.

Schools’ Sports given a new lease of life by DPM

BY TONY MARIADASS
KUCHING: Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has saved the Schools’ Sports through his announcement that the Education Ministry will allocate RM89 million for sports and co-curricular activities in schools.
Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, also ordered that the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) re-instate the 11 sports that were slashed from the 2010 calendar citing a cut in the Ministry’s budget.
Muhyiddin said: "Re-instating the 11 sports is consistent with making sports a priority in schools nationwide.
“Our goal is that each and every of our 5.6 million students in 10,000 schools take up at least one sport.”
Muhyiddin also announced that steps were being taken to ensure that schools are well equipped for sports - which include upgrading poor sports facilities and school fields.
Indeed, a big thank-you to the DPM is in order when he vetoed the earlier decision announced by the Sports, Arts and Co-curriculum department’s decision to exclude 11 sports because their budget has been cut from RM6 million to RM1.5 million.
However, while the decision must be applauded, another bigger question is looming as to whether the new decision will be put into action with utmost priority and urgency.
The concern is how long will it be take before the decision is forwarded to the Ministry of Finance and how long before funds are dispensed to the ground for  activities to be organised.
It is already into the second week of February and with the Chinese New Year holidays ahead, before we know it the month of February would have passed.
The first term school holidays starts from March 13 to 21.
The schools’ sports at national level are normally organised during the schools holidays and whether the Inter-Schools and Inter-Districts championships can be organised during this short spell is another question mark.
The next school holidays is from June 5 to 20 and probably, the next school term from March 22 to June 4 can be used to organise the schools and district level competitions.
However, the last thing we need is for the Education Ministry to come and say that because of time constraints and the funds not being made available immediately, they will have to forgo some sports or even organise it on a one or two-day carnival basis.
However, the consensus among parents and sports followers and critics alike, is that all this is too good to be true because the announcement to re-instate the 11 sports and the funds made available, may have come too late. Many are skeptical that the 11 sports axed can be organised.
Certainly this is more than enough reason for the Ministry of Education to prove the critics wrong and not let down Muhyiddin and putting him in a hot spot.

BACKGROUND TO SLASH OF MSSM FUNDS
MSSM"s budget for 2010 was slashed from RM6 to RM1.5 million.
 As a result of this measure, only 13 sports was supposed to have been organised by MSSM at the national level. They were artistic gymnastics, gymrama, golf, swimming, athletics, badminton, netball, basketball, volleyball, sepak takraw, football, tennis and hockey.
 On top of that, all the sports, except for artistic gymnastics, gymrama, swimming and athletics, were not supposed to have the Under-15 age group championships.
Schools sports are organised at Under-12, Under-15 and Under-18 age group level.
 The eleven sports given the axe included sports which are key sports in Malaysia: -bowling, squash and archery. The others supposed to be axed were table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball, cross country and chess. While the sports were supposed to be cut because of lack of funds at the MSSM level, the inaugural Asian Schools Sports will be organised by MSSM to a tune of RM 5.5 million.

Backroom for sports in schools

This story appeared in the Eastern Times today.

Schools sports taking a backseat ... for now

By Tony Mariadass
KUCHING: The whole nation is abuzz that the Malaysian Schools Sports Council’s (MSSM) annual budget is cut from RM6 million to RM1.5 million, and that from the annual 24 sports organised at the national-level, only 13 will be held this year.
However, despite the sports fraternity and parents outcry, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Youth and Sports have not responded positively to try to reinstate all the sports dropped.
Among the 13 sports that will be organised this year by MSSM are artistic gymnastics, gymrama, golf, swimming, athletics, badminton, netball, basketball, volleyball, sepak takraw, football, tennis and hockey.
There are further exclusions in the sports - except for artistic gymnastics, gymrama, swimming and athletics. The others will not see their Under-15 category organised.
Schools sports are organised at Under-12, Under-15 and Under-18 age group level.
The eleven sports given the axe include key sports in Malaysia -bowling, squash and archery. Others are table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball, cross country and chess.
The decision will drastically affect several sports that Sarawak excels in.
Among them are sports that have been totally omitted from the MSSM calendar this year, namely bowling, rugby and squash.
Then the exclusion of Under-15 category in football, hockey, badminton, netball, basketball and volleyball, which are popular in Sarawak, will see their development hampered.
The reason given for the drastic cut is the cutback on funds, which is across the board in all Ministries.
However, the irony is that while there is a cut in domestic grassroots sports, a whopping RM5.5 million will be spent by MSSM to organise the inaugural Asian Schools Sports in Kuala Lumpur.
One wonders, why spend on organising an Asean level championship, when at home, there is inadequate funds.
Another puzzling issue is that fact, that RM10 million was allocated by the Government for soccer development following the National Under-23 team’s success in the recent SEA Games in Laos where triumph came after a 20-year wait.
The Under-15 schools’ tournament that is very much part of development is scrapped because of lack of funds, but RM10 million is allocated for a development programme.
Could not RM5 million be allocated to the schools sports, which is the heartbeat of the future of Malaysian sports?
All these do not make sense and one wonders what the rationale of the decisions is. Physical Education and schools sports activities have of late already taken a backseat and that explains the decline of Malaysian sports in general.
With the move, it is further going to handicap Malaysian sports in the long run.  National Sports Associations (NSAs) have been approached by MSSM to organise the sports that have been axed this year, and several NSAs who have always worked closely with MSSM have already indicated that they will be organising the national championships.
One such association is the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC) which have always been passionate about grassroots development.
However, the question is what will happen to many of the sports that were axed by MSSM at the State and district level?
Who is going to organise the events at that level? Not all the State Schools Sports Councils have the means.
Selangor Schools Sports Council (SSSC) were among the few who had said that they will continue organise sports at the State level despite the sports being dropped at the national level by MSSM .
Sarawak, probably is among the luckier states, where Sarawak State Sports Council is proactive and have always emphasised on grassroots developments.
And example is the five-year football development plan run by the Sarawak State Sports Council working closely with State Education Department.
The idea to organise Under-16 School Development League is timely now with the Under-15 soccer tournament dropped by MSSM. This programme should do better than MSSM programme, if it is run on League format over several months with matches played over weekends.
This will ensure continued training for longer periods and playing many competitive matches - which is root of development. Sarawak has undoubtedly over the years produced many top sportsmen and women and should be recognised as a sporting hub for the nation.
The fact that Sarawak has been recognised for aquatics and that world-class facilities are being built, is a stepping stone for the State to be recognised as a sporting hub.
The State-of-art aquatic centre, which is expected to be ready this year, came about after the outstanding performance of aquatics at the Laos SEA Games last month where a total of 15 gold medals was won, with swimming delivering nine and diving six.
Those in the current national aquatics squad from Sarawak are swimmer Daniel Bego and divers Bryan Nickson Lomas, Pandalela Rinong and Traisy Vivien.
Daniel was the pride of the nation when he emerged as the top male medal winner for the country, with a sensational five-gold haul.  The 20-year-old broke four Games records, including a longest existing 14-year-old mark in the 400m freestyle.
Daniel Bego, a fortnight ago also bagged the Coca Cola Olympian of the Year Award for Male athlete at the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) Indoor Sports Arena in Kuala Lumpur. Daniel, the star performer in the pool with five gold medals also won the best male athlete award of the 25th edition of the Games.
The 20-year-old broke four Games records, including a longest existing 14-year-old mark in the 400m freestyle.
It was the second time that Daniel picked up the Olympian award after 2007.
Daniel and all the other swimmers are all products of grassroots development and did not emerge overnight.
Sarawak certainly has tremendous potential to hog the limelight at national and international in several sports and it will indeed be a pity if grassroots sports are neglected by MSSM.
With schools sports having taken a backseat for this year, the Sarawak State Sports Council and Sarawak Schools Sports Council should take the initiative to ensure that Sarawak sports remain relevant for the future, with their own programmes.