All letters were delivered to the respective recipients on 23th.July.2008 except for DYMM Sultan of Perak
Following meetings were held:
23th.July.2008 - KSU of Ministry of Youth & Sports
1st.Aug.2008 - DYMM Sultan of Perak
4th.Aug 2008 - YB Minister of Youth & Sports
Insofar as DYMM Sultan of Perak and the KSU of the Ministry, it was formally handing over the "open letter".
As for the YB Minister, he wanted to discuss the letter and seek the opinions of the former internationals. YB Minister requested a full presentation of what were the possible reasons for Malaysia's poor performance and what should be done to revitalise Malaysian hockey to world standards. The Minister wants this presentation in a month's time. Present at the meeting was also the Chairman of Sports Advisory Panel.
Early next week we shall be posting a note in the blog to the 102 former internationals seeking their assistance in the preparation of the presentation. Once we are able to put the draft presentation together, it is important that the former internationals meet and finalise the presentation. We hope others who want to provide their input are most welcome.
For the moment, we enclose the various documents for your attention:
- COVER NOTE
- "K. Enbaraj & Azlin Fairuz
on behalf of Former Malaysian Hockey Internationals
23rd July 2008
Ref: An Open Letter – “The Need for Urgent Revival of Malaysian Hockey”
On behalf of 102 former Malaysian Hockey Internationals, we enclose :-
· A 2-page Open Letter titled “The need for urgent revival of Malaysian Hockey”.
· A copy of the 102 names and signatories of former Malaysian Hockey Internationals.
· List of recipients of the Open Letter.
We organized a signature campaign among the former Malaysian Hockey Internationals and within 4 days, we obtained 102 signatures.
These 102 former Malaysian Hockey Internationals represent hockey players from the era of 1950s to 2000. In the 102, there are 37 Olympians and 29 World Cuppers. Among them are personalities from the age of 80 to 26, inclusive of 9 former National Coaches, 2 former National Team Managers, 10 former National Captains, 1 former World XI player and 10 former Asian All-Stars players.
The wealth of experience of these former internationals bring to the letter is a reflection of the genuine concern of the state of hockey today in Malaysia. The letter is an appeal to all relevant parties to do the needful to ensure that Malaysia is back in the forefront of world hockey.
K. Enbaraj Azlin Fairuz"
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- OPEN LETTER
Ref: “The Need for Urgent Revival of Malaysian Hockey”
An Appeal from Former Malaysian Hockey Internationals
"Reaching as far back as the 1950s, Malaysia has consistently had representation in Hockey for the Olympic Games, Asian Games as well as the World Cup. In those early days, despite the stark lack of infrastructure and resources, there were players and officials so committed to the cause that it more than made up for the deficiencies. Numbering among these individuals of caliber are such names as Sultan Azlan Shah, the late Tun Abdul Razak, the late Datuk Seri Aziz Durairatnam, Tan Sri P. Alagendra, the late Datuk Seri Dr Moreira, Datuk Vijayanathan, the late S. Satgunam, Zain Azahari, Tan Sri Noordin Hassan, Wilfred Vias, Mike Sheperdson, Lawrence Van Huizen, Datuk Ho Koh Chye, Datuk Yogeswaran, Yang Siow Meng, Titus Havelock, A. Francis, Sri Shanmuganathan, Datuk Poon Fook Loke, R. Ramakrishnan, Nor Saiful, and Mirnawan Nawawi. Naturally, there have been many others that worked from their hearts and souls and are just as responsible for keeping the Malaysian flag flying in the world arena of hockey.
For certain there were times when qualification to the World Cup or Olympics did not materialize, but even then the progress of the National Juniors always provided a ‘ray of hope’. Their achievements in keeping abreast with world hockey signified their readiness to don national colours and re-attain Malaysia’s status in international hockey.
Today, Malaysian hockey has at its disposal far better infrastructure, resources, as well as support from the Government. Yet despite the improvements, Malaysia’s position within international hockey has declined significantly at every level. All of the national teams, be they the Seniors, Juniors, or the Under-16’s, have performed at such steadily deteriorating standards that Malaysia is now placed outside the main artery of international hockey. To compound what can only be referred to as an unmitigated disaster in terms of decline, even at her current position, Malaysia is finding it a struggle to take on the ‘minnow’ nations of hockey.
It can be said that the situation has reached a critical level, where the future stars from various age groups may not provide the long established ‘chain of supply’ into the National Team. This folly has been instigated by the action of the Administrators of hockey who, in all their wisdom, have seen fit to abdicate the full responsibility of the Age Group tournaments and Champion School’s tournament. As such the grass-root development of hockey is left in limbo.
Adding further bricks to the wall, hockey is now caught up in a web of allegations both on and off the field. Despite the presence of a police investigation into these matters, the damage to the image of the sport has already been done.
With things as they stand, the future of Malaysian hockey is bleak however, not irreparably so. The sport itself stands at proverbial crossroads, where change is necessary in order to revive it from the slump it has suffered. Any improvement to the dire status quo can only be facilitated if we have a team of officials who not only love the game of hockey dearly, but also are prepared to sacrifice their time in commitment to the cause. This must be done in tandem with properly planned strategy in the intention of revitalizing hockey across all levels and installing the structure that can create world class players and officials.
This appeal from former Malaysian hockey internationals is done for the love of the country, and in the hope that the nation’s flag is always hoisted to fly proudly in the international hockey arena. To achieve this dream, first Malaysia must win back its representation in such tournaments.
Therefore, we humbly look to the Cabinet Committee on Sports, the National Sports Council, Malaysian Hockey Federation, and indeed, all the supporters of hockey, to intervene with the right people at the right positions, and ensure that the standard of hockey is returned to its former glory, so that some day it may even surpass it. It is a matter of national pride that Malaysia re-attain her position as one of the top teams in the world.
Thank you."
For and on behalf of former Malaysian Hockey Internationals.
K. Enbaraj Azlin Fairuz
Date: 18th July 2008
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- LIST OF RECIPIENTS
Ref: “The Need for Urgent Revival of Malaysian Hockey”
OPEN LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING :
1.
DYMM SULTAN AZLAN SHAH
President of Honour
Malaysian Hockey Federation
2.
YAB Datuk Seri Najib Razak
Deputy Prime Minister &
Chairman of Cabinet Committee on Sports
3.
YB Dato’ Ismail Sabri bin Yaakob
Minister of Youth and Sports
4.
Y Bhg Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Mohd Anwar Mohd Nor
President
Malaysian Hockey Federation
5.
Y Bhg Dato’ Mohd Yasin bin Mohd Saleh
Ketua Setiausaha
Ministry of Youth and Sports
6.
Y Bhg Datuk Zolkeples Embong
Director General
National Sports Council
7.
YAM Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar
President
Olympic Council of Malaysia
8.
Y Bhg Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad
Chairman
Sports Advisory Panel
9.
Affiliates of Malaysian Hockey Federation
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- 102 SIGNATORIES ( signatures have been removed for security reasons )
Click to enlarge
1 comment:
This is my personnal contributions which i sincerely hope to assist in your effort.
i cannot be counted to be 'greats' as you all are but i have been playing and following Malaysian's Hockey for nearly 50 years and i was shocked to see its freefall only this last few years.
There were alot of contributing factors to the decline but one area that is pertinent missing to my unbuyous observation is:
1) Have quality personality manning all strata of the MHF.
Like not having a Gen-Sec who cannot even speak and write proper internationally used language.
2)Assisting Coaches and Officials for any National setup must have status and charisma and not have have hair deprivatition like now. Having no hair is bad enough but no credibilty in the game is the ebb of absurdity. The people that 'ok' him should commit 'hari-kiri'.
3) MHF Committes members must be manned by normal beings and all retarded( cannot speak independantly but a mouth-piece)
and handicapped( like having slanted sight) should be a no-no.
4) All official must be competent in operating electronic equipments and not like videoing with the cover on.(it happened in Germany)
Please sepuloh- dua, i will be watching whether you all make this mistakes, if you all do, then woe betide you all.
Proud to know that there re people like you all and do not let nay-sayers throw you all 'off-track' as all of them are 'hanger-ons'.
Forward MHF, Malaysia Boleh.
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