Press Statement

by Lim Guan Eng

(Bidor, Saturday): DAP strongly opposes the Government’s intention to spend RM 490 million to build a sports complex called the High Performance Training Centre(HPTC) in Brickendonbury, London as a gross waste of public funds and an abuse of power by allowing Sports Ministry officials the excuse to take junket trips overseas. 

For the National Sports Council(NSC) to spend RM 490 million to build the HPTC in London is against national interest because of the loss of foreign exchange earnings benefiting a foreign company in construction cost as well as extra expenses in paying for the air fares and living expenses of our sportsmen in London. Further the NSC has not shown how it can be produce excellent sportsmen when only a limited number can enjoy the benefits of a London stay.

Clearly the NSC does not have the interests of Malaysian sportsmen at heart by adopting an elitist approach. Further the NSC has no proven track record for all the hundreds of million ringgit spent has not have the desired results in terms of gold medals in international and world competitions.

The NSC should learn from South Korea that emerged as a world sporting power despite its small population of 47 million people. Not only are South Koreans top archers, top taekwondo, exponents their women golfers are also the best in the world. Even in table-tennis and badminton, non-traditional sports for South Koreans, they are amongst the top players. We need look no further than the World Cup.

In 1980s, Malaysia regularly beat South Korea in football, culminating in the famous 2-1 victory to qualify for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Now we watch South Korea regularly play in the World cup and even qualified for the semi-finals in 2002. I doubt that the Malaysian football team now can even beat a South Korean youth esUnder-21 team.

Why has Malaysian sports and athletes deteriorated so drastically as compared to South Korea? The NSC do not have to look very far for an answer when sports associations are dominated not by full-time professionals but by politicians, who have neither time nor interest but are only interested in cheap publicity.

Further there is a lot of prejudice and patronage in that sports officials are more important then sportsmen until the expenses exceed the amount spent on training. Instead of merit and skills, many worthy athletes do not receive due recognition. Witness the shambles in sports association that despite the promises made by Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said remains neither dead nor alive.

Now the NSC is trying to distract attention from its sporting failures by promoting the building of a RM 490 million HPTC in London. Clearly the NSC not only can not see the woods from the trees, it completely misses the point. Physical hardware is important but what is the use of having the best equipment if there are not good sportsmen.

Money should be spent at home in Malaysia to identify, nurture and train young athletes. For the Datuk Azalina to acknowledge that RM 490 million would be spent on a HPTC in London over a 10-year period, is an admission of both failure and defeat. Such defeatist attitude is unacceptable in sports that demands mental strength, competitiveness and self-belief to win.

How can so much money be justified by the explanation that the HPTC is near to the site of the London 2012 Summer Olympics. If so why are no such centres build in Beijing which is hosting the 2008 Olympics? Datuk Azalina also explained that the HPTC has to be built in London to allow our athletes to acclimatize ourselves to the cold weather. This is ridiculous and foolish as Malaysia does not participate in the Winter Olympics. And Summer Olympics are held in the summer which is hot like in Malaysia. Where then is the need to acclimatize our athletes to the cold weather by spending RM 490 million?

DAP demands that both Azalina and her Deputy Datuk Liow Tiong Lai resign if they support spending RM 490 million on the HPTC in London which would drain national resources without giving any benefits to Malaysians in general and sportsmen in particular. Perhaps both of them should learn from African or South Koreans how they are able to become world champions with either no money or limited government support.