Wednesday, May 22, 2013

DNA - sedikit pandangan

Syabas kepada krew Nadi Arena, jabatan yang menghasilkan berita untuk saluran Astro Arena 801 setiap hari untuk tontonan anda, atas penyiaran Dekripsi Nadi Arena (DNA)! Namun ada ruang yang harus diperbaiki. Topik pertama yang dipilih rasuah bola sepak. Kita akur ada beberapa kekangan dari segi undang-undang yang mengikat DNA daripada mendedahkan lebih banyak nama dan kaedah pemain dirasuah.


 

Datuk Ghani Othman membentangkan kertas kepada Jemaah Menteri bagi membanteras gejala itu.



Bekas penyerang Pahang, Rosmaini Mohd Shah, menarik diri daripada skuad pra-Piala Dunia yang tewas akhirnya di tengah terik mentari Kuwait pada 1981. Di saat adanya nama-nama besar seperti Chow Chee Keong dan Yip Chee Keong yang dibawa pulang dari Hong Kong, selain R. Arumugam, Soh Chin Aun, Shukor Salleh, James Wong, Mokhtar Dahari, Hassan Sani, Khalid Ali dan Jamal Nasir Ismail, skuad bimbingan Karl Weigang hanya merakam tiga gol, dua daripadanya dicatat oleh Ibrahim Haji Din, penyerang Angkatan Tentera Malaysia. Enam tonggak skuad itu digugurkan setelah pulang manakala dua lagi mengumumkan persaraan mereka. Krew DNA menemu bual bekas bos aku Zian Johari yang membuat liputan di Kuwait City pada April 1981...




Robert Alberts, yang membawa Kedah menjuarai Piala Malaysia pada 1993, berasa dikhianati pada 1994 ketika skandal rasuah didedahkan sehingga lebih 100 pemain dikenakan tindakan gantung. Siapa tidak ingat barisan Hijau Kuning yang menampilkan Olubunmi Adigun dan Peter Nieketien, Radhi Mat Din, Ahmad Sobri Ismail, Lee Kin Hong, Norazam Ishak, K. Ravichandran, Manja Man, Faridzuan Che Hamid, Feriza Ismail dan Nidzam Adzha Yusoff...



Negeri Sembilan mengambil tindakan terhadap skuad Piala Presidennya pada 2011



Dengan persembahan info grafik dan fakta serta penyelidikan lebih mendalam, DNA harus mengangkat corak pemberitaan sukan dalam dunia penyiaran. Sekalipun ada beberapa fakta penting seperti kes mahkamah selepas Sukan Asia di Seoul pada 1986 tidak diselitkan, DNA episod pertama tetap satu percubaan yang menarik.


Monday, May 13, 2013

Name the SAM awards after eminent journos

It is highly unlikely Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek will continue as the Youth and Sports Minister. Tradition dictates the position changes hands after each General Election.

Ahmad Shabery will be remembered as a Minister who was open to ideas and criticism. He wanted the industry to be driven beyond the normal medal-hunting scope but I guess his officers and little Napoleons let him down.

Media-friendly, Ahmad Shabery worked closely with the Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM), a non-governmental organisation comprising of individuals involved in the sports media. In officiating the KBS-SAM Awards in PJ recently, Ahmad Shabery again mentioned the need to model it after the Pulitzer Prize. Read KBS-SAM Awards, Pulitzer style

SAM-KBS Media Awards offer a number of categories such as Best Overall (open), Best News Report (print media), Best News Report (electronic media), Special Repor & Commentary (print media), Special Report & Commentary (electronic media) and photography.

I wish to suggest the main categories of the awards be named after four of the country's biggest names in sports media.



Norman Siebel was the founding president of SAM and Straits Times sports editor


Ceylonese-born Siebel, as the nation's foremost sportswriter, enjoyed access to the corridors of power. Siebel (second from left) with Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia's first Prime Minister who held positions in several sporting organisations, notably FAM and AFC. Siebel had a huge following and was credited with giving the moniker Punch to badminton legend Punch Gunalan and created the nickname the Thing for Tang Hsien Hu. The Indonesian-born Chinese badminton legend was so agile, powerful and ferocious that he literally tore his opponents apart, prompting Siebel to liken him to THE THING, the main character in the 1951 sci-fi movie. A cricket player in Ceylon, Siebel was highly influential in haping the rakyat's opinions on sports. He wrote a racing column for pre-war Malaya Tribune, then made a name for himself as an opinion maker in football, rugby, track and field and tennis. Together with 37 other sportswriters, Siebel formed SAM at the Straits Times office at Jalan Riong. Two months later, Siebel passed away. Rahim Razali who was a leading television and radio sports commentator, became acting president. G.S Kler was the first secretary and Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah, then the Information Minister, the patron. Besides Siebel, Rahim, Kler and Mansoor Rahman, the other pioneer members present at the meeting were Lee Pek Hoo (Nanyang Siang Pau), R. Jeyanathan (Radio Malaysia), Conrad Ng (Straits Times), Wong Siew Hoon (China Press), Matmor Bachik (Utusan Malaysia), Chang Cheng (Sin Chiew Jit Poh), S.L.E. Maran (Tamil Nesan), Chan Tin Wang, Liew Mok Yoong, Alex Soars, Francis Emmanuel, Rahim Kassim, Tony Francis, Ian Pereira, Peter de Souza, Sajab Siraj, Tony Danker, Ma'arof Mohamed Nor, M.T. Lingham, Ibrahim Ngah (all Straits Times), Abdul Ghani Othman, Khalid Jafri, B. Abdul Ghani, Taufik Kajai (Utusan group), Baharin Tahir, Ronnie Atkinson, Santokh Singh Gill (Radio Malaysia), Harjit Singh, Idris Nordin, K. Chandrashekaran (TV Malaysia), Liew Koon Siong (China Press), Alban Gomes (Bernama), Tan Oou Teck (Nanyang), Ben Variyan (Eastern Sun), R.D. Selva (Straits Echo) and Hari Chand (freelance). 


The commemorate Siebel's contribution, the main category award should be named after him. Try the KBS-SAM-Siebel Golden Pen Award...

For the main category for TV, name it the KBS-SAM Rahim Razali Award...Datuk Rahim Razali who took over SAM after Siebel's demise, was arguably at one time the nation's best TV and radio sports commentator.




Russia menembak enam gol memasuki pintu gol Hungary...(Russia shot six goals past Hungary)

And do you know who was the first ever journo to be dispatched overseas to cover a major sporting event? It was Lee Siew Yee (Tan Sri), who covered the Thomas Cup in United Kingdom in 1949, 20 years before SAM was established. He rose to the position of the New Straits Times Editor-in-chief in 1970 and was bestowed the  MPI Eminent Journalist Award in 1992. In his book The Singapore Lion: The Biography of S. Rajaratnam, the scholarly Siew Yee struck the writer as being apolitical.


Under the heading How Malaya Won Thomas Cup, Siew Yee wrote:
  "The Thomas Cup for the world international badminton competition, was presented by the donor, Sir George Thomas, to Lim Chuan Geok, the Malayan captain, at 11.30 GMT last night (7.0am Sunday Malayan time)  to the strains of the national anthem. Malaya had beaten Denmark eight-one in the final."

 A few days later, on March 3 to be exact, Siew Yee wrote:
  "This is a story of a crisis which hung over the Malayan Thomas Cup team while they played the Americans in Glasgow and the Danes in Preston. Lim Chuan Geok, the manager, had no money left. He did not tell the players. When the team reached Glasgow, Lim secured 200 pounds advance from the organisers against Malaya's share of the gate collection. With this, he paid the hotel bills, exceeding 100 pounds."

The trip was sanctioned by the Straits Times board of directors, with the airfare borne by the paper but Siew Yee had to dig into his own pockets for other expenses.

The print category can be named after Siew Yee, who died in 1999.

Another name that cannot be ignored is Zainuddin Bendahara who brought SAM to greater heights in the 80s. Perhaps the special report category can be named after him.


p/s to SAM exco, please organise a dinner to pay tribute to past presidents, founding members of SAM such as Ian Pereira, Wong Siew Hoon, R.D. Selva, Tony Danker, Ronnie Atkinson as well as seniors like Amran A Hamid and Hussin Ibrahim.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Zol ganti Yasin?


Selamat bersara kita ucapkan kepada Pesuruhjaya Sukan (PJS) kelima, Datuk Yasin Salleh. Minggu lalu anak jati Johor yang pernah menjawat tugas Ketua Setiausaha Kementerian Belia dan Sukan menamatkan kontraknya selaku penguatkuasa Akta Pembangunan Sukan 1997.



Jadi siapa bakal menggantikan Yasin?

Pelantikan dijangka dibuat oleh Menteri Belia dan Sukan yang bakal dilantik.

Tapi aku nak cadangkan satu nama. Anak jati Terengganu, Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong, yang sudah enam tahun menerajui Majlis Sukan Negara (MSN).

Zol yang kaya pengalaman sebagai pentadbir lebih 30 tahun, boleh isi jawatan sebagai PJS atau pengerusi Perbadanan Stadium yang juga kosong.

Tegas dan suka bertikam lidah dengan persatuan, jawatan PJS tentu mudah buat Zol.

Kalau jaga stadium pun bagus jugak, memandangkan Zol ada pengalaman jaga kemudahan-kemudahan dan prasarana di bawah naungan dan kelolaan MSN satu ketika dulu.


Dari kiri Kamarulzaman Pid (kini pengarang berita Harian Metro), Sazali Abdul Samad, jurulatih Milos Sarcev, Zol, aku, Liaw Teck Leong dan Adlin Murtadza Zabri di perkampungan sukan di Doha 2006


Zol dan aku berlatarbelakangkan Stadium Nasional...sesuai tu

Amacam? Setuju?



Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Kafe Sukan makes way for DNA

Finally Kafe Sukan, one of Astro Arena's signature shows which I am proud to be associated with, will take a break, with its 149th.episode to be aired on Monday, May 13.

The show is scheduled to be on air again in August.



Episode 148 featured academician-politician-turned-FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad and SAM president Ahmad Khawari Isa. The topic was The Role of the FAM General Secretary.

Kafe Sukan is taking a break to make way for DNA...a show conjured yet again by Slamet Sazly Yakub, the brains behind Kafe Sukan, Dengan Izin, Formasi and Grandstand Ahad, in collaboration with the news team, Nadi, headed by Khawari. I was pleased to be able to contribute a few ideas that were accepted by the panel, comprising among others Datuk Hishamuddin Aun and the Nadi team. Watch the trailer...



Episode 1



Episode 2

My vote goes to...

...YB Khairy Jamaludin as the next Minister of Youth and Sports. Well, if I have the right to vote for the individual to head the Ministry...

The Rembau MP is at the right age, 37, articulate, intelligent, good orator/writer and actively plays football and polo. The Kuwaiti-born and Singapore-schooled Oxbridge product has the pizzazz to connect with youth from all races.

His stint as the deputy president of FA of Malaysia and president of MyTeam will certainly help him deal with the idiosyncrasies and shenanigans of our sports officials, not all though, I must qualify.

Though I must say I have had my fair share of disagreements with KJ, objectively speaking/writing, he fits the bill as the young and upwardly mobile Sports Minister. After all his father in law was once Minister at the same ministry and his father, Datuk Jamaludin Abu Bakar, was the Secretary General of KBS from 1971 to 1973.



And yes, I would love to have a second bite at the cherry of getting YB KJ on Dengan Izin in his new capacity...if that materialises lah!


Rembau's most wanted

I will also be anxiously waiting if Annuar Musa and Azalina Othman Said be given a new lease of life in the Cabinet...hopefully not, hehe...