Letter to the Editor: Congrats to Tan Boon Heong & Khoo Kien Keat!

March 13, 2007 in Local Politics, Social Activism & Religious Matter, Sports, Games & the Like

My letter to The Star was published today. You can read it here. Below is the unedited version.

I would like to take this opportunity to convey my congratulations to Malaysia’s badminton men’s doubles pair Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat of their success in winning the All England Men’s Doubles trophy after 25 years since Malaysia’s last win.This achievement is by no means an easy feat and the pair must be applauded for their undying spirit to triumph against all odds against the mighty Chinese team. The fact that Tan and Khoo are unranked shows that Malaysia does not need world class facilities in some European country to churn out the best sportsmen and athletes in the world. Both Tan and Khoo is testament to the fact that what our sportsmen and sportswomen need is passion and the desire to win. You can have the best facilities and the best coaches in the world but if you lack the drive and the determination to win, all hope of winning anything would have already lost.

So, why does the Youth & Sports Ministry kept insisting on building that gawdawful “world class” sports centre in some far flung place in London? Doesn’t Datuk Azalina realise that the millions are better spent and invested in our athletes’ welfare and training as well as the renovations and maintenance of already sufficient sports centres here in our own country? There are so many sports complexes around the country that seems to be falling apart and yet, the Ministry is not even interested in doing anything except to “train our athletes overseas so they could acclimatise themselves with the harsh environment”. Can the Ministry enlighten us as to why they are not listening to the voice of the people?

I hope that Tan and Khoo’s victory in the All England finals will inspire all the rest of Malaysia’s athletes to bring home more glory for the country in future competitions. Show us what you’re made of, Malaysians, so that we may really be proud to say Malaysia Boleh!

So, what do you all think? It’s not like we’re a damn bloody rich country and here, we have a gung-ho ministry who wants to throw away hundreds of millions of ringgit into a damn sports centre that’ll probably be rarely used at all. They probably did not consider about which party would exactly foot the bill to send hundreds of our athletes to London to train there. Considering how cash strapped most sports associations are in Malaysia, I doubt any would even want to send our athletes to London to train. Obviously, the responsibility would then fall on the ministry to send them there…with taxpayers’ money!

We certainly want our athletes to do well and we are definitely proud if we have successful Malaysian athletes like Nicol David, Bryan Nickson Lomas, Daniel Bego, Tan Boon Heong and Khoo Kien Keat who constantly bring glory to Malaysia… but certainly not at the expense of the taxpayers! I can think of a whole lot more things that are of utmost importance compared to sports, such as improving our public transportation, improving our infrastructure, improving our education system and protecting & preserving our heritage sites.

Set your priorities right, damn you Malaysian government!!!