In between Josiah Ng getting pissed off for us (NST) raising the matter that that he has to earn his berth in the national team's racing and funding programmes or risk being knocked out by some promising junior and development riders, the National Sports Council announced a plan to hire foreign mercenaries to ensure we meet with 'an ongoing trend' that sees many countries hiring ready-made medal winners through processes of naturalisation.
Well, they aren't going to look at our immigration policies, so if you're a foreigner and have lived here for more than 30 or 40 years, don't expect your citizenship process to be sped up unless you can win an Olympic medal.
I, like many other purists, still believe we have to learn and learn a lot to develop the machinery that will churn out world class, Olympic medal-winning athletes. I don't believe in buying them just to win Olympic medals for us. How important are those medals?
I spoke to two really seasoned sports people, one a former Olympian and the other a 30-year veteran of sports journalism. Both do not agree in taking the easy way out. I, similarly rather than whole-heartedly, agree with them.
Well, apparently, this is simply bringing into the picture again a list of 57 foreigners head-hunted by NSC some years ago, a plan which was driven to rest by the NST, but has now surfaced again.
My view is: We are powerless to stop the NSC and the Sports Ministry if they want to do so. And when they do so, they are simply admitting their failures to develop sports in this country to world class levels. We can't and should not stop them from doing that as well.
But, having said that, let's look at this as serious business. If we're gonna give somebody citizenship, he/she better well be one of the very best, not just a Yuan Yufang, Hidayat Hamidon or Irina Maharani, who've done no more than deliver Sea Games gold medals, which is bullshit.
If you're going down that road, get the best, the Usain Bolts, the Alberto Contadors, the bloody Manny Pacquiaos of this world.
I'm dreaming already. Usain Bolt with a Jalur Gemilang on his chest?
Well, here's my wish list NSC and KBS:
Most prominent of all drops is the chute-less skydive of Malaysian hockey at this moment. So to arrest the problem, it is only just that the best player in the world be made a Malaysian.
The skillfull Dutchman Teun de Nooijer should do the trick.
Man, he'd do wonders if he were Malaysian.
Then look at our road cycling programme. Despite all the promise, MNCF constantly fail to run a proper programme to get the riders up to the top level. So, why waste time.
Alexandre Vinokourov is from Kazakhstan and in case the NSC didn't know it, he's won an Olympic time trial medal, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Along with his partner in crime Andrey Kashechkin, he's also serving a two-y
ear doping ban after testing positive for EPO in 2007. That ban should be up and over next year, which is in time for Kash(right) and Vino to start a programme towards London 2012.
Hell, why stop at that... Get the entire Dutch women's hockey team. They're world and Olympic champions. Just tell them same team, same coach, same manager, just different flag, but much more money, right?
Wooo, we can't just stop there. We need more. And no more than nine golds from one person can satiate our hunger for Olympic gold. And those nine can only come from one person. Michael Phelps.
Built like a fish, fast as a Ferrari, hungry as an Eritrean refugee. Only problem is, he might be too patriotic. So, just raise the bar. Offer him US$1 billion per gold medal in London and in 2016, wherever that will be.
Oh, taxpayers will want value for money. Then, there's no other that even comes close to my current favourite boxer - the Filipino living legend, the man who's inspired so many dreamers in the impoverished slums of Manila - Manny Pacquiao.He packs a billion dollar punch and could easily be coaxed into dropping his pro status, probably a bit of Malaysian trickery would coax the IOC into allowing him to regain amateur status in order for him to fight for "the country" in London. Think of it. Like most Filipinos, Manny's even musically inclined, as he plays the guitar and sings like a tiong. What more could a country ask for!
And then we heard that the NSC were lining up a string of Jamaican sprinters. Wow! Why just go for any Jamaican sprinter. Get us the best, get us USAIN BOLT!
Sure this all sounds good. So, once it is done, we can also think about closing the NSC, for there's no need for them. We can just go shopping around the world. Anyone can do that!!!
5 comments:
Dear Arnaz,
You should have written this comment for the paper u work for, i of course am totally against hiring of mercenaries. If we are going to do that i suggest they give citizenships to all those professsionals and immigrants who have lived here for most part of their lives, which in many cases are longer than our 51 years of merdeka. Give them blue ICs and then let's bring this to the table. Incidentally, assuming u make a jamaican-born a malaysian, what race would he state when he has to fill up forms that still carry that "dreaded" race category. We need to fix that too before we get to the table.
cheers
a very cheeky piece, I must say...
hehehehehe
Rokk, knowing our administrators, they might likely categorise Jamaicans like this - Bangsa: Afrika.
hehehehe....
Rizal, it is not meant to be cheeky. I'm quite serious about Usain Bolt!! But then again, many out there are treating Malaysian sport like a big joke, aren't they?
Funny piece. But I like the way your mind works.
Arnaz, you can't be serious!
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