SPEECH BY
YAM TUNKU TAN SRI IMRAN IBNI TUANKU JA’AFAR
PRESIDENT
OLYMPIC COUNCIL OF MALAYSIA
on the occasion of
5th OCM ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2003
Date : 29th March 2003
Time : 8.30am
Venue : Olympic Hall, 2nd Floor, Grand Olympic Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Good morning and welcome to the 5th OCM Annual Conference 2003. Since 1999, the OCM has each year held a conference to spotlight an area of concern in sport. This year, we are focusing on sport development at the grassroots. We think there is an urgent problem in this area of grassroots development warranting immediate attention from all of us.
We are today, on the threshold of imminent changes brought upon us by developments elsewhere in the world. As Adolf Oge, Special Adviser to Kofi Annan on Sport for Development and Peace, observes “…. mankind is a restless lot …. whose energies and ambitions if not properly managed and satisfied… can lead us astray and result in destructive aggression”. Perhaps he should have addressed this to George Bush and his cabinet.
Sport then is an obvious modern answer as it channels these energies and ambitions into civilized forms of content, teaching us valuable lessons, which are significant in many areas of life.
We believe that sport is not just about performance, competitions, world records and star athletes. It is also about learning healthy social behaviour, developing friendship without borders and having a common purpose. It is a cultural medium for international values in the context of globalisation. Sport is about humanity. The existing conflict and tension in the world today has only underlined the need for sport - not just the elitist sport of gold medallists and international stars - but sport in its most basic and enjoyable form, existing at the grassroots.
If you ask me what I mean by sport at the grassroots, I couldn’t give you a simple straightforward definition. But I can tell you:
- Grassroot sport is organised play at the beginners’ and basic level - a level not controlled by age nor by ability - rather the lack of it. A 40-year old may be involved in grassroots participation whilst a 14-year old may have advanced to elite level in the same sport.
- Grassroot sports are basically recreational, allowing large numbers to participate to fulfill social and emotional needs. The emphasis is always on the 3F’s - fun, friendship and free expression. There is no pressure to win.
- Grassroot sport is not necessarily played to the rules of the International federations. Rules are often simplified and adapted especially in terms of number of players per team, size of playing area, duration of play and equipment. We have examples like 3-on-3 basketball, 7-a-side soccer, 6-a-side hockey and ‘Kancil’ cricket played with plastic bats and a plastic ball.
- Grassroot sports do not need expensive sophisticated urban facilities. It must exist practically anywhere using whatever existing available facility - like roads, back lanes, beaches or even abandoned padi fields.
Another condition of grassroots sport is that it must be relatively cheap and self-funding for the sake of sustainability and large-scale participation, so that it will allow men and women to regularly refresh themselves after labour and flee from empty idleness for active recreation.
At this point it may be a good idea to take a look at our National Sports Policy. Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world to have a National Sports Policy. It encompasses both elite sports and grassroots sport (referred to loosely as mass sport). It states that its main aim is to develop an active healthy and fit Malaysian society through sport and physical activity directed towards nation building. Its chief strategy is the development of elite sports AND mass sports simultaneously with equal emphasis. The Policy states that sport is to be considered a cultural mode of expression of the people. The policy also specifies the role of the various players (e.g. KBS, MSN, OCM, MSSM, NSA’s, corporate bodies, etc). This fine policy was approved by the Cabinet in January, 1988.
Now nearly 15 years later let us see the direction Malaysia has taken. Almost immediately, after the Cabinet approval, we launched the Target 88 programme followed by various other programmes with the Gemilang 2006 as the latest elite programme initiated by the NSC, and scheduled to be launched soon.
The government has since allocated millions of dollars to sport, especially in the areas of athlete training, hosting of events and building of highly sophisticated competition venues. We spent RM120 million for the 1998 Commonwealth Games training, RM1.3 billion on upgrading and building facilities and nearly RM300 million on organising the Games. Of course we reaped some benefits - an unprecedented 10-14-12 medal tally that placed us 4th in the list of participating nations; a new global respect and image for the nation and international recognition as hosts. Since then we have participated in 3 SEA Games, each time outdoing our previous best culminating of course in the glorious 111 gold medals in 2001. We have also since participated in two Asian and one Commonwealth Games with greater confidence and better performances. Several sports like tenpin bowling, lawn bowls, squash, diving and gymnastics have moved a couple of levels up. We are also shifting our sights from SEA Games to Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. But all these are taking place in the area of elite sport - thanks to the leadership of the National Sports Council, together with the diligence of the NSA’s and the assistance from sponsoring corporations.
Of course, this success came with a price tag. Besides the obvious Ringgit and sen, we are increasingly confronted with cases of duping, financial mismanagement, violence mainly by spectators, cheating by judges and early retirement by athletes succumbing to the pressure to perform. The attention from the media and the ready financial assistance from the NSC and corporate sponsors for elite programmes have lulled many NSA’s into complacency and caused them to abandon all other programmes. This is most obvious in the case of junior development and grassroots programmes as state, district and club levels. Thankfully not all NSA’s and their affiliates are in this boat.
Malaysian basketball for example has a highly successful 3 on 3 programme. Tenpin bowling and squash have highly successful programmes for young people. Representatives from these sports are present here today and I hope that they will take this opportunity to explain their projects for the benefit of the rest of us.
If we look at the schools scene, the MSSM has an annual budget of over RM1 million, which it uses for ASEAN level, national level and state level competitions in about 24 sports every year. Two sports schools for talented athletes have been set up.
The individual schools too expend a lot of money for their school teams to participate in various inter-school and district competitions - very often with negligible training and preparation! This is still an elite programme as only the school players (e.g. 16 in soccer, 12 in basketball, etc) play the sport and the other students have no participation opportunity as there are hardly any inter-class, inter-house and modified games for the rest of the students who are non-school players.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
It is important to note that today the developed world considers sport an important factor in education. The modern concept of sport stresses its educational significance. Educators today acknowledged the importance of sport and physical education as tool for social and civil education and development. In this country it is also recognised as an important medium for national unity and ethnic integration.
Sport is accepted as a fun and practical way to learn essential human values. Sport has the power to alter behaviour which theoretical learning lacks. Where else except on the sports field, can you acquire such values as respect for opponents, for rules and for referees? Where else can you learn to manage the euphoria of victory? Where else can you learn to rise after each fall? Certainly not in the maths class or the geography class.
Sport has found its way into the vernacular. Terms such as ‘getting on the front foot’, ‘playing with a straight bat’ and having a ‘level playing field’ are used in everyday parlance.
If these noble qualities are important in today’s world, how can we acquire them when the government, the NSA’s, the sponsors and the parents are only concerned about elite programmes in sport involving 2-3% of the national population? There is no government machinery that provides leadership assistance or advice for grassroots development as NSC does for elite programmes. There seems to be a lack of commitment and passion in many NSA’s for grassroots development. The sponsors would rather support heroes and heroines and the media find grassroots programmes and activities totally unnewsworthy. How can people acquire essential human values if they are not involved and not participating in the activity?
Similarly, in the school, how can we change the behaviour of 1000 children in the school when we involve actively only perhaps 10% in the sports programme?
Certainly we cannot change the situation overnight and it is a fact that there are problems to be overcome. We face problems of space, facilities, finance, technical personnel and motivated, committed leadership. Perhaps the facility owners, like the schools and the local authorities, can work with NSA’s, parents and the local community to run activities. There must be a way of developing a self-financing scheme if we can create a demand.
There are thousands of kids paying sizable sums to karate and taekwondo instructors to attend training where they get kicked and punched and tortured physically. They happily return week after week. If other sports can give the participant the fun and friendship, a sense of belonging and a feeling of importance they too may even pay to participate.
Ladies & Gentlemen,
Most of you are from the NSA’s. I urge you to look at the grassroots of your sport and to ensure that they are properly nurtured and encouraged to grow. Without a sound base of activity, where are you going to find the elite players? Sportsmen and sportswomen need activity, whether through organised or unorganised competitions, to test themselves and above all to enjoy themselves. The future of your sport is not only in your elite programme, but more importantly in your grassroots development programme. Even if an athlete in your sport does not achieve and does not want to achieve stardom, you can be assured that if he or she enjoys playing and participating in your sport, you will reap he benefit in the future. That athlete may come back one day as a manager, a coach, a referee, a spectator, a volunteer helper or even a sponsor. So please, ladies and gentlemen, think “grassroots”.
We shall continue this conference with a presentation by Mr Huang Soon Fook, the Secretary General of MAVA who took the trouble, together with several others, to study the Japanese model for grassroots sports. Maybe it will give us some ideas. After the coffee break, there will be presentations by three people who have successfully launched grassroots programmes. I am sure there are others who have also had similar successes. I hope you will come forward and share your secret recipe with the rest of us.
After all the presentations, you will break out into working groups where you will discuss specific areas of grassroots development.
I hope your discussions in these workshops will be fruitful and your presentations at the final plenary session will provide us with ideas, which we can use to increase the level of participation in sport in our country.
The recently concluded F1 race at Sepang was reportedly watched by 100,000 spectators (of course not all are Malaysians). Some paid up to RM1,000 for tickets and spent money on parking, food and souvenirs, just to witness Schumacher roar past (not very successfully). But, hardly 1,000 were willing to pay RM30 to run the KL Marathon. Is this because we have bred a generation of people who are willing to pay to sit and watch but not willing to pay to participate? Or is it because Sepang provides more fun and friendship and value for money? Hopefully in 10 years time the trend will change - 100,000 will pay RM30 to run the marathon and for the sake of our F1 race and its Malaysian supporters, 100,000 will continue to pay their RM1,000.
Thank you for your attention and I hope you are enjoying the conference.
YAM Tunku Tan Sri Imran ibni Tuanku Ja’afar
President, Olympic Council of Malaysia