VJ SINGH FORTUNATE NOT TO BE GRANTED PR STATUS, SAYS DEPUTY PM

Najib on Vijay

World number one golfer Vijay Singh had once applied to be a Malaysian permanent resident (PR) but was rejected. However, the authorities might have done him a favour.

“It’s fortunate that Vijay Singh was not granted the PR status, otherwise he would not have become the world’s number one golfer. That’s the truth,” remarked Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak candidly.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who was launching the Malaysian Sports Science Academy, spoke of how Malaysia, having all the excellent sports facilities, still lacked the right sports environment, culture, values and mental attitude to mould athletes into sports greats like Vijay Singh.

“If you do not have the right mental attitude towards sports, then you can’t achieve excellence,” said Najib, a sports enthusiast and former Youth and Sports Minister.

“It is no secret that the Prime Minister is also equally passionate about football and badminton,” he said. He said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had spoken about the days when Malaysia was feared as a force to be reckoned with in sports.

“But somewhere down the line we could not sustain the success. We are hungry for success. We have been waiting so long for success,” he added.

Najib is definitely right! Malaysia lack the right sports environment, culture, values and mental attitude to excel and develop champions. But, is it the sportsmen and sportswomen's fault? Or, is it the fault of sports association and its officials and governing councils? Can't we see that the schools are a failure in sports? Isn't it obvious that sports officials had been abusing their position to achieve personal gains? Isn't politicians the main office bearers that made decisions so that we fail because they are more interested in getting favours and titles to their name?

Until we admit wholeheartedly and the officials and ministries are contrite, we will not see improvement, no matter how hard we try! We can keep changing sport minister, and coaches; but the office bearers remains and there is tremendous power play in most sports association. Confucious says, "Till we discover, that what we had and is still believing, is wrong, which may actually be right, and what we acted and decided which we believe is absolutely right, is, but profoundly wrong, we will NEVER achieve PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE!!!!!!