SYSTEMIC FAILURE IN SPORTS ASSOCIATION

Athlete Failure

DOES THE SPORTS MINISTRY UNDERSTAND WHAT IS SYSTEMIC FAILURE?

"Malaysia is not a poor country. We eat well, have healthy bodies and have facilities available but countries that are not as developed as us have proven to be better. Where do their ability come from? It all comes down to preparedness,” said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Dear PM, I don't think Preparedness is the primary reason of Malaysian players. Our players are going through year round training, practices and participating in domestic and international tournaments which shall give them the necessary exposures and experience, ideally, good enough to make them competent in the game, and make them champions; and they are semi-professional too, i.e. they are paid to play for a living.

Malaysia was once the powerhouse of badminton, winning almost any trophy that existed in the game. We had Wong Peng Soon, Eddie Choong, Tan Aik Huang, Gunalan, Ng Boon Bee & Tan Yee Khan, etc, etc, all these people were world champions in the 50s and 60s. From then on, we had won only one Thomas Cup, 1 All England Champion in Singles and doubles, and many minor 2 to 3 stars Championship tournaments.

What had happen? What had we done wrong that had drag our players to such standards?
Why is it that countries like Denmark and Korea keeps improving their standards and offered stiff competition to countries like China and Indonesia, the traditional powerhouse alongside Malaysia?

Badminton Association of Malaysia had spent multi millions to bring in world reknown coaches such as Morten Frost Hansen, Han Jian, Yang Yang, Indra Gunawan, Park Joo Bong, and many others to beef-up the skills and aptitude of the players. Yet, our results are declining year after year. We had changed few Sports Ministers and Presidents and team managers, yet we don't seem to see results that correspond to the effort and money spent. Is it the players? I don't think so. Is it the reward system? I don't think so as the Govt and NSC reward champions abundantly. Is it the coaches? Don't ever blame the coaches as we had almost all the world best coaches.

Then, what what the hell is wrong??? BAM and sport ministry will never find the answer. They can do every post-mortem after every disasterous tournament, and come up with all kinds of solution ... and all those solutions will never work, and there'll be no result to show. WHY?????

Confucious says,
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance."

If you don't know what you don't know and you keep believing what you know is right which is actually never right because the results, solutions and actions produces more problems and the results indicates continuous decline, then you will never discover 'Profound Knowledge'.

Year in and out, after each dismal performance, the sports association keeps fiddling with the system and giving excuses that had pile-up so high that it may paradoxically equal the twin tower of Petronas.

What then can be done?
LOOK into the SYSTEM:
- the PEOPLE (Management, players, NSC, OCM, Sport Ministry personnel),
- the PROCESS (selection of players, coaches and team managers; decision making, strategic and tactical management of schools sports, infrastructure availability and suitability, recognition and reward system,performance measurement system, process continuity and development, etc), and
- the ATTITUDES (personal drive and self-esteem, tidak-apa, monetary drive, power-play, political-play, recognition and reward, lack of altruism)
of those within the association and the ministries.

See what the managers and presidents and his councils were doing for the sport as a whole within the system design and system capability. Look what they did to the players and what they did to the coaches. Morten Frost quit for reasons associated with the management, Gunawan quit for similar reasons, and Park Joo Bong too.

You can change all the players and bring in many more new players and many more coaches. Misbun Sidek is proposing that BAM have one coach to two players. I dare even say that, even if BAM have one coach to one player, we will still see the same dismal result.

What is needed is not TINKERING and FIDDLING the system but a CHANGE - wholesome revamp, starting from the President of BAM and the head of National Sports Council, Olympic Council, etc, and it MUST absolutely include all the council members who were such influencial in directing and tempering the system to suit their own personal interest and benefits.

The issue of failure is not restrict to badminton only. It include Hockey, Football, cycling, golf and athletes sports. The exception may be bowling and tennis.

Does the Sports Minister understand what is Systemic Failure?
Does she has the power and authority to remove those dead woods and rotten woods?
Was money the game they play to stay in power and position within BAM?
Isn't money politics as rampant withinin BAM as it was within MCA and UMNO?

I doubt the minister can do much. Who else can do? I believe Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, if he is prepared to stay for 5 years as Sports Ministers; he can bring result - What reason??? Because he is the only one minister who dares go against the TIDE, the POWERFUL STAKEHOLDERS and crony players who survive on communalized political affiliation within the system of win-win based on MERIT-O-no-you're CRAZY!

MALAYSIA BOLEH - MENANG DI KAMPUNG TOURNAMENT SAHAJA!

Well, if Keng Yaik goes to Sports Ministry, then, the KL and Putrajaya folks will have to pay for the 45% increase in water tariff, plus putting up with the poor communication system for hand phone. What Keng Yaik has is not about ability to perform, expertise nor hardwork alone - he has guts, pure guts, to see to it that things are done right, even if it means losing his head in the political system. He struggles to create benefits for the people, the rakyat, by revamping the malfunction system within the ministries and the institutions, and reducing the cost of poor quality of which we had to bear and had been paying for, all these years.