Dear Azam,
Assalamualaikum and greetings.
I hope this letter reaches you in great health. I know Turkmenistan is an exotic place to live in despite claims to the contrary.
Thank you for the pictures. It's nice to know you and Risya are staying in a spacious home at Turkmenbashy. It appears like a castle.
Anyway, since you like to discuss sports in Malaysia with me, I wish to share with you a few interesting issues from this little corner of mine.
I'm sure you are fully aware of the CYC issue. You know I was among the first to question the wisdom of having an expensive tournament in Malaysia at the expense of the taxpayers' money.
Bernama reported recently Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, who was Youth and Sports Minister when CYC was launched in March 2007, said it was not right that the organisers of the Champions Youth Cup (CYC) football competition had neglected the FA of Malaysia (FAM).
You know, Azam, if I were among the Press people at the function, I would have asked her: Did you not neglect FAM yourself when the idea of CYC was mooted?
She was reported to have said that when she was the Youth and Sports Minister, the idea to have the tournament was brought up at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Sports Development, which is represented by 15 other minsiters and chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
"It was a decision of the committee to organise the tournament. I was also disappointed when I got to know the promoter did not want to work with the FAM on it.
"For me, it was the most important thing they should have paid attention to," she said.
But Azam, you and I know how arrogant some people can be. Now they have the cheek to pass the buck.
Azam, I must tell you that I don't agree with the Cabinet Committee proposing on creating tournaments. I think it's terms of reference should be confined to putting in place a sports-friendly culture, in terms of infrastructure and human capital.
The Cabinet Committee is not the place where you sell an idea of organising a football tournament for youth that costs the government RM17 million in staging rights alone!
I'm sure as an old boy of MCKK you are taught to hold dearly to principles, the right ones I might add. Your junior is already a YB and perhaps you should consider becoming one in the future?
Anyway the Cabinet Committee also approved the idea of a forward base in London. So is the Cabinet Committee a place to discuss mega projects?
I'm sure you would agree with me, Azam, if I say the Cabinet Committee should not get involved in the business of promoting and financing events.
By right the promoter, in this case Gifted Group Limited, should have sold the idea to FA of Malaysia who in turn discuss it at their level before forwarding it to the Sports Minister who would then take it up to the Cabinet Committee to seek an endorsement to facilitate the promoter's bid to source for funds. Instead it was done the other way around!
You know, Azam, when I was at the Malay Mail, I was the only one who kept on questioning Azalina's policies, so much so I was accused of getting personal and driven by a personal agenda.
Later on Citizen Nades from the Sun and Ahmad Khawari Isa from Berita Harian joined me in the battle for the truth. Only these three. Only these three. Only these three.
As it stands now, I am fully vindicated.
On Azalina's successor, Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob, I feel sorry for him that he has to deal with the mess left by his predecessor. I know he has his plate full so much so he did not have the time to officiate one SIC function! And then Ismail had the audacity to ask SIC chairman Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir to step down because the chairmanship is a government-appointed post.
I don't know why our Ministers seem to have no or little class, Azam. I worry for our future.
My salam to Risya. I shall be writing more letters to you, Azam. Don't worry.
Yours sincerely,
Your bro-in-law,
Rizal Hashim.
8 comments:
Dear Abg Rizal,
Thank you for your letter on our life in Turkmenistan.
It is really a touching thought from you. At this moment we are subscribing to the "Malaysia Boleh" spirit in a region where people are still trying to understand who the average Malaysian is actually.
I must say that you have my full support in pursuing the truth behind the scenes of Malaysian sports. I must mention also that it is about time those in high level position to think as one in order to move forward.
CYC is another classic case of no integration in terms of making a decision.
When a decision has been made, there is a lack of follow up in terms of getting all parties to agree and heading towards the same goal.
Malaysians should start to acknowledge mistake when a mistake has been made and the related parties need to find a solution that is acceptable and beneficial to the sports fraternity.
Our grass root is losing the inner self strength or Jati Diri when we face other nationalities. I always believe that our youngsters should have strong Jati Diri to survive in the world without boundaries.
Malaysians have the capability to move forward and succeed but Malaysians must believe in having faith on our fellow Malaysians.
CYC is also patronizing in the sense that when it comes to a proposal by a foreigner, the government start to believe the words coming out from this guy.
When are we going to start believing in our own people? We have a lot of good people with ideas and proposals to enhance our sports.
CYC is good exposure for our players but why not the same amount of money to be channeled to our grass roots? I have a friend who is grooming a Johor player to play for the state but the player was not allowed to play for Johor due to some interference from politicians who want to include his choice of players.
Maybe what I am saying is a common thing in our football scene in Malaysia but until when we are going to accept this kind of interference? Are we going to have our child growing up believing that we must have connection to survive in Malaysia?
You always say that I'm an idealist and you always support me in pursuing my ideas. I believe that Malaysian society should be allowed to pursue their ideas.
Don't let the rich be richer and the powerful to be more powerful. Let commoners like us be given a fair chance to survive in Malaysia.
Sorry for a very long reply to you, me and Risya we always look forward to your letter. Send my salam to those who know me.
We ask for doa from everybody in Malaysia for the success of all Malaysians abroad. Insyaallah, we will make Malaysia proud in our own way.
Salam from us in Turkmenistan,
Azam & Risya
Dear Rizal,
I understand your feelings when you say 'only these three', three times.
I say bravo! to the 'only these three' and keep up the goodness in you.
Only if there are more musketeers like the 'only these three' will Malaysia be a better place.
Salam and God is with you
yeah laa ck...only those three. the others (not all) are merely "pengampu @ pembodek". waiting for their turn to reap the oppportunities. have no guts.
to those three....keep up the good thing you had contributed in exposing the real truth about our sports in the country
dear azam
i've read your reply to rizal and i agreed with you with regards to the jatidiri. most of us are great pretenders. when they meet different people they behave differently and talk differently.
to many, the yellow-haired people always bring better ideas. when the black-haired locals tell them of something for the benefit and improvement of soccer, they wont listen. instead they would only response to those yellow-haired guys.
i give you one instance - i've sent a proposal to the general secretary of fam on ideas on how probably we could improve our standard of the game. 1stly i dun even get a reply (even though i dun expect one from them, realising my position as just an idiot of soccer). after sometimes, they had a so-called an expert from fifa to advise them on how to run the professional league. it was quite wierd when the same thing was brought up to their attention but to no reply. and now they admitted that it was wrong to have 13 teams and will make it 14. "an advise from the yellow-haired and ignorance to the black-haired".
later, they had the prolific Ian Rush to conduct soccer clinic for strikers in the country. and it was only for few days. just as stupid as how they sent the 2 young lads from Kedah n UPB/MyTeam to Chelsea, expecting them to come up full of ideas to be good players within 2 weeks. to make matters worse, that created a havoc between the fam and state fas that argued the selection of timing for the clinic. my question here is why not invite locals of the same calibre to conduct consistent clinics to the youngsters. these are the players who need guidance. if you need me to name the players, here they are - Isa Bakar, James Wong, Bakri Ibni (still alive and strong), Hashim Mustapha, Husin Jaafar, Dollah Salleh, Zainal Abidin Hassan, these are reputable names that people respected. but again..its the yellow-haired (already white due to his age) guy.
wallahualam...
n now...the yb bera is following azalina's style...step by step...hopefully it is true after reading rocky's posting...
ha ha ha...n after this don't get shocked if yb bera will announce kbs plan to build racing circuit full equipped with recording studio...
recording studio?...for whom?...for his son lah....n to make the proposal approved, he may use the phrase "utk pembangunan belia di bera"....
The President of AFC/G14/Jonathan Price/GGL attempted to steamroll the CYC past FAM and FIFA by stealing money from the Malaysian People.
Therefore..The President of AFC must step down.
The Fourth Musketeer.
bro,
while you are chasing down the cyc you have missed out on azalina's other cronies..news in the grapevine is that her boys who organised the federer tennis event last year have yet to pay the event promoters in bangkok as well as quite a number of contractors including the stadium. also heard these guys were also behind the badminton world championships and rumours are that they owe the bam more than one million muchas
4 Feb 08 semasa mesyuarat FAM, ada dua orang wartawan berulang kali bertanya rasional untuk kembali menganjurkan CYC walaupun janji-janji GIfted Group pada penganjuran pertama 2007 masih banyak belum tertunai.Dengan angkuh KJ menempelak wartawatan tersebut dengan kata-katanya "Pekak ke,tak abis-abis dengan soalan CYC,banyak lagi soalan lain boleh ditanya,".
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