Mak's passing, 14 years on

Location - HKL. Date - Oct 31, 1994.

"Riz, can you pass me the apple, please?"

"Of course." I picked a green apple from the fruit basket, one of many given to Mak since she was admitted about two weeks earlier. But after two or three bites, Mak had breathing difficulties. She was gasping for air. Right before my eyes, with Ayah and family friend Mr Ng at her bedside. I panicked. The nurses were quickly summoned!

The three of us were immediately told to leave the room. Ayah was bracing for the worst. I did not know whether or not he was prepared for this moment. As for me, I did not know what to think, what to do. My mind went blank.

Later Mak was transferred to the ICU. Relatives and friends were informed. They came in droves but only a few were allowed to see her. Mak was in a state of comatose, being kept alive by the life-support machine. Makcik Pah, Mak's cousin and a staff at HKL, facilitated things. Some whispered to me "the signs are not good", telling me to prepare myself for the shattering news.

Ayah, Kak Lin, Aishah and I were in a state of shock. Atok almost collapsed upon reaching the hospital. Then Mak was transferred to the CCU. Man was the only member of the immediate family not present as Ayah waited for him to finish his classes at IIUM. Man arrived around Maghrib and quickly recited the first few verses of Surah Yaasin, with tears flowing down his cheeks. Moments later Mak was pronounced dead. It was as if Mak was waiting for her youngest son to bid farewell. Our beloved Mak was gone. She was only 51.

Ayah must have known something about Mak's illness but he kept it away from us. Mak was hospitalised for 13 days but the doctors, both Dr Christopher Lee and Dr Zainuddin Abdul Wahab, were evasive each time they saw me. I failed to realise the true extent of Mak's sickness. It dawned on me later that she could have been suffering from lung cancer.

Atok was devastated. Three of his loved ones - her husband, her eldest daughter and now her only surviving child were all gone. Atok Antan passed away at the age of 67 in 1983 due to stroke, while Mak Long Ramlah died at the age of 28 in 1969, a year before I was born. Mak had two younger brothers who died shortly after they were born.

My colleagues at Berita Harian, including my superiors Hishamuddin Aun (current GEIC of New Straits Times), Badrulhisham Othman and Abdul Ghafar Ismail (Editor of Harian Metro), paid their last respects later that night.

Mak was laid to rest the following day, after Zohor prayers. A few of Ayah and Mak's friends, including two present Cabinet members and their wives, paid their last respects as well. One Parliamentary secretary who is now a Minister even faithfully accompanied Mak's remains to the burial ground.

The year Eric Cantona was born, Mak and Ayah got married, with Pak Tunggal (Jamil Sulong, left) and Mak Nani as the guests of honour

Mak and Man at seven months

Volkswagen was Ayah's first car, while Mak listens attentively to Razak Abdul Hamid, who survived the Hiroshima bombing. Read here

Mak (standing, left) represented Malacca in badminton

I think Mak (standing, second from right) was a half-back in this hockey team

Mak was a member of class of 1956, the pioneering batch at Sekolah Menengah Perempuan Melayu, Melaka, the forerunner of Sekolah Tun Fatimah. Among her fellow pioneers include Aminah Ahmad Badawi, Zubaidah Abdul Rahman, better known through her Sri Siantan column in Berita Harian and Badariah Mimbar, whose son here is my fellow Johannian and a spitting image of his father. As fate had it, Badariah, a real garang teacher, taught Man and me at St John's. Read Najmuddin Najib's Mum for a brief history of STF

SEMOGA ROH MAK DICUCURI RAHMAT OLEH ALLAH SWT DAN DITEMPATKAN DI KALANGAN SOLEHAH, amin - AL-FATIHAH

El Diego or El Loco?

Very few great football players become great managers or coaches. Exceptions to the rule - Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and to a lesser extent, Michel Platini.

Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano may have been two purveyors of the beautiful game but once they swapped their jerseys with the tracksuit, they knew they were not cut out for the job. Pele was smart. He stayed away from the bench so that he could dish out criticisms at people and consistently come up with wrong predictions!

For flawed genius Diego Armando Maradona, cynics are suggesting he would not last long as the Argentina coach.

But I agree with my ex-boss El Loco. Read also Seba and John's take and Maradona's birthday story. Anyway Maradona's autobiography El Diego is a must read for footy fans. Pity there was no mention of Boca Juniors' visit to Kuala Lumpur in 1982, when Maradona had little time to entertain requests for interviews nor autograph signings!

Supermokh (left) and El Diego exchanging pennants, with George Joseph (right), the community leader for Bangsar, looks on. Three years earlier George refereed the FIFA World Youth Cup quarterfinal clash in Tokyo between Argentina and Algeria. Maradona opened the scoring in a match they won 5-0!

Tennis and I

Much to my regret, I never took up tennis. In retrospect, there were plenty of opportunities for me to play the game as my late Ayah was a social player. He never left home without his Wilson tennis bag. He was a member of the Sultan Sulaiman Club (KSS) at Kampung Baru.

Ayah not only had a good forehand but he once refereed a football match where former Asian Football Confederation (AFC) supremo Datuk Peter Velappan was playing.

Instead of picking up tennis, I grew up playing football, what else. By the age of 10, I was a member of Darjah Empat Merah that became inter-class champions of St John's Primary (1). I even enjoyed the distinction of scoring with my left foot, a thunderous shot that shaved the bar before crossing the line (there was no net then). While I went on stage to pick up the prize during Awards Day, Adik Man showed a glimpse of his early potential by bagging the English award, I think. It was therefore not a surprise that he became the winner of the Lembaga Tabung Haji Award and the Tan Sri Kadir Award, as best student for Bachelor of Laws and best student for Bachelor of Laws (Syariah) of the IIUM, as reported by the New Straits Times in November 1997. Man's convocation was held 26 days before Ayah passed away peacefully in his sleep in Johor.

Man and the cute-looking soon to be loose cannon with our respective prizes. Even at the age of seven he was almost my size

Despite my love for football, Ayah must have tried to subtly persuade me to try tennis as well because when I was 14, Ayah gave me my first pair of sneakers. It was a pair of Diadora trainers with Bjorn Borg's name to it! Ayah bought them in Singapore during the days when everything across the Causeway was cheaper. Although I was a keen follower of the game and an avid fan of Ivan Lendl and Gabriela Sabatini, I never picked up the racquet. I guess it's too late now.

On Nov 18, Borg will be coming for the Showdown of Champions 2008. How I wish I could take Ayah to the game. I'm sure Adlin M Zabri (below right) as the organiser can provide me tickets!

BEAUTY and THE BEAST...Edleen Ismail of ESPN Sportscenter (left) is not to be mistaken for Adlin M Zabri, former NST and BT journo and press secretary of Anwar Ibrahim

But the showdown of champions (read the official website) must not be mistaken for the Kings of Tennis here. Whatever it is, tennis fans in Malaysia will be in for a treat. Many moons ago I covered Michael Chang when he came for the Salem Open. This time, Putra Stadium will be graced by legends - Federer, Blake, McEnroe and Borg, champions from two different eras. Penangites will get to meet the likes of Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg and Marcelo Rios in the flesh!

A reunion for SAAS products

My phone rang a few minutes before midnight while I was surfing the net recently. "Eh, where are you? We are at Haji Zaki's place, he's asking you to come over," said 2006 Asian Games 400m hurdles bronze medallist, Noraseela Mohd Khalid.

Zaki, the former director of development of the National Sports Council (NSC), was to host his son Shahnaz's wedding the following day but Noraseela, like the rest of her former school mates at the SM Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (SAAS) in Kajang, was told of a reunion of sorts at Zaki's residence.

So there I was, getting re-acquainted with some of the most talented athletes to emerge from SAAS, which was made the centre of excellence for track and field when Zaki was in charge of development at NSC.

Zaki, who retired in 2002, remains a father figure to them all. After more than seven years of intensive training, SAAS were proud to unveil hurdlers Mohd Robani Hassan, Seela, Moh Siew Wei, sprinter Nazmizan Muhamad, decathlete Muhamad Malik Ahmad Tobias, and pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu to name a few, as the No 1 in the country in their respective events, with Seela, Siew Wei, Malik and Roslinda becoming national record holders.

Haji Zaki Abdul Rahman holds court
Former decathlete Muhammad Malik Ahmad Tobias (left), former pole vaulters Yeap Lai Hin and Teh Weng Chang paying attention to the guru

Seela perhaps whispering to the boyfriend, with former quartermiler Masfuzah Abdullah eavesdropping

There was almost 40 ex-athletes, all products of SAAS

Zaki told them to make it a point to meet as often as possible and to keep the sense of camaraderie alive. The SAAS programme was a pilot project that has produced among others Seela (1999 and 2003 SEA Games gold medallist, 2006 Asian Games bronze medallist), Malik (1999 Asian Junior bronze medallist, 1999 and 2003 SEA Games gold medallist), Nazmizan (first athlete to bag the SEA Games sprints double since G. Rajalingam in 1967) and Roslinda (2006 Asian Games silver medallist).

When a new set of office-bearers took over the Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU) shortly after the track and field team bagged 14 gold medals in the 1993 Singapore SEA Games, they were quick to dump three Russian coaches - Dr Edwin Ozolin, Dr Sergei Sidorenko and Oleg Dmitrousenko - for reasons best known to themselves but it gave NSC the opportunity to tap their brains. So the NSC pioneered the SAAS centre, putting Ozolin, a former sprinter and Sidorenko in charge, while Dmitrousenko was tasked to guide hammer thrower Wong Tee Kue. Ozolin is the man behind Seela and Moh's emergence as hurdlers of Asian calibre while Sidorenko moulded Malik into a fine decathlete. "Malik is a fine specimen indeed," Sidorenko once told me.

Malik, sadly, has quit the scene at a relatively young age (he's only 27), bitter for a variety of reasons. Some like former pole vaulter Tajuddin Abdullah and horizontal jumper Ahmad Faizal Salim have been roped into the system as teachers or officials.

"This is the best opportunity for you to share with others what you have learnt throughout your career and your experience at SAAS. Seela for example must be given the necessary assistance so that eventually she can become a good coach. This was one of the conditions imposed on her by the NSC when she was sent to Germany," said Zaki.

Zaki however was skeptical if the Education Ministry could handle the development and training programme of elite athletes at school level.

"I'm sorry to say this but sports is not the Ministry's core business. Although my ex boss (Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad) is the Education Ministry's adviser on sports, he alone cannot be fighting the system. The Treasury will never be generous in their financial disbursement to the Ministry because sports is not their reason for being. They have other priorities to think of. Handing over the development aspects of sports to the schools is not going to help. We deliberated on these issues in numerous seminars and conventions when I was still with the Sports Ministry in the 1970s and later the NSC."

P/S: Teh Weng Chang, who competed in the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002, told me: "I read your posting on our wedding, I like the heading, Single no Moh...hahahaha. His wife Moh was apologetic for not inviting me to the wedding. "The place was limited lah...". Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) Datuk Sieh Kok Chi often referred to Moh as my girlfriend because I used to cover her and even fought for her inclusion to the Manchester Games.

Sathia's housewarming party

The man who missed the penalty in the Merdeka Tournament final against Vietnam is seen here with the wife and Berita Harian's Fadzrie Hazis (right). In the background, FAM general secretary Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad is being interviewed by the RTM crew

The host B. Sathianathan entertains a group of people who are die-hard supporters of the national team, with loose cannon's family in the foreground

Also seen here is Mr Amir (proudly wearing Malaysia's away jersey), the driving force behind the National Team Supporters Club

Sathianathan's assistant Ismail Ibrahim and his family

FAM assistant general secretary Haji Saifuddin Abu Bakar tucking away

Zamani hopes to redeem himself in the AFF Suzuki Cup

The FAM general secretary helps himself to the food

B. Sathianathan's Deepavali do doubled as a housewarming party but the Press were not in a mood to party as discussions centred on Malaysia's prospects in December's AFF Suzuki Cup following the penalty shootout defeat to the Vietnam Under-23 side in the Merdeka Tournament.

So the subject of Sathianathan's contract which ends next month was raised but FAM general secretary Lt Jen (R) Datuk Azzuddin Ahmad was non-committal.

Let's wait for the AFF Cup. After all it was announced earlier that the AFF Cup is the key performance indicator for Sathianathan and team manager, YB Khairy Jamaluddin.

New media officer for FAM

Zaid Jamaludin

The FA of Malaysia (FAM) will have a new media officer next month. Saudara Zaid Jamaludin will report for duty at the hallowed halls of FAM at Kelana Jaya on Nov 22.

He was the Concorde Shah Alam Marketing Communications Manager.

Armed with a degree in mass communications, Zaid has had a career in Marketing Communications which has taken him from Guoman Resort Port Dickson, Bukit Tinggi Resort Berhad, the Star and ntv7.

The first media officer to be employed officially by FAM was Berita Harian's Ahmad Khawari Isa who has since returned to the paper, followed by former Harian Metro sportswriter and TV3 presenter, Dahlan Maamor (now host of Hello Malaysia at Bernama TV) and my former colleague at the Malay Mail, Satwant Singh Dhaliwal. Preceding Khawari was Christopher Raj, who was employed by ProSports but based at FAM to help out on matters pertaining to the Press. Christopher is now a reporter at the New Straits Times after a brief stint as a stringer at the Malay Mail.

Best of luck, Zaid.

A letter to the editor

An old staff of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) wrote this letter here. It can also be accessed here