Leon Brown said that " In the end, you deserve what you get. The amount of effort you put in determines your joy and happiness." Looking at the background of Malaysian hockey and the manoeuvres that have taken place to keep out deserving candidates in becoming contestants, one can see that it is a reflection of the greed for power. Unfortunately, the greed is not reciprocated by the performances of the Management and the teams both in and out of the field. Endeavouring to sustain power by whatever means is an indication that the Affiliates lack the capacity to take on the Management and change them. How right was Leon Brown, and it fits very well insofar as to the Malaysian Hockey Affiliates ie no joy and happiness. Sad isn't it?
"Promises are only as strong as the person who gives them" per Stephen Richards. It is a measurement of one's character and nature to honour the promise. When a promise is not fulfilled it raises the fundamental question of integrity and the true colours of the personalities. One wonders if the future promises of such people can ever be believed.
It was made known that if Malaysia does not qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for hockey, the key personalities promised not to seek re-election. Up till then the performance of both the men and women teams was very questionable, the various local tournaments did not attract sufficient quality teams and as a result, hockey was losing popular support. Development programmes lost their way and never recovered. Most Committees were only in name and failed to achieve their purposes. The list can continue including mounting debts.
The gentlemanly approach would have been to accept the fact that as Office Bearers they had been unable to deliver in their 4 years at the helm and therefore they must allow others to do a better job ie the bigger picture and for the good of Malaysian hockey. Such was not the case. Rather, and to compound it, they failed to conduct an independent nomination plus election procedure, tantamounting to having " a loaded dice" and ensuring all potential challenges were fizzled out. This ensured that a potential contestant was disqualified based on some mind-boggling action of an Affiliate having submitted an official nomination which was approved and another submitted independently by its President. This seems to be like a premeditated action to derail the contestant who is a renowned entrepreneur.
This whole episode begs the question as to why such personalities want to hold on to power by whatever means despite their failure to deliver. Are the Affiliates so dull as not to comprehend such matters? Were some strange commitments made such that the future of Malaysian hockey is completely forgotten for the sake of other needs?
What further baffles me is the slow-moving nature of the Sports Commissioner and the Ministry of Sports in not intervening expeditiously to bring a sense of sanity to Malaysian hockey. I think many written complaints have been made of this procedural saga and yet the Malaysian Hockey Congress is set to proceed on the 16th of November with the elections.
My mind goes into "mental gymnastics" questioning how Malaysian sports could ever achieve standards of excellence when the personalities who helm Sports bodies do various things to sustain power, moreso when they fail to deliver the expected results. Yet the Sports authorities seem to move at a "snail's pace" and nothing is being done to rectify the situation. Do such authorities only exist for "window dressing" to provide some form of optics? Maybe it is the local maxim " style mesti ada, kalah tidak apa"! If that is so we shall remain in a "3rd world mentality" trying to compete with "1st World" nations. Maybe that is why we are always on the losing end.
This whole saga in Malaysian hockey needs only a simple process to rectify it. An independent check of the Affiliate would indicate the truth of the matter. Thereupon a decision can be made to permit a true and fair election giving all contestants time to canvass for support.
I sincerely hope that if the Sports authorities do not act to postpone the elections on the 16th of November, the Affiliates would be enlightened and act responsibly to ensure that it is postponed. The future of Malaysian hockey is in the Affiliates' hands, which means that their efforts can bring joy and happiness to Malaysians. Affiliates, please be bold enough to take such steps. You will be remembered for changing the face of Malaysian hockey at this crucial moment.
V M Chandran
15th Nov 2019.
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