THE fight against doping in sport is a continuously evolving battle and in this country, it is led by the Anti-Doping Agency of Malaysia (Adamas). Newly-appointed Adamas director Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz speaks to Timesport’s DEVINDER SINGH about the importance of the work of the agency in safeguarding the integrity of competitive sport in Malaysia.
Q: What are roles and duties of Adamas?
A: We act as the anti-doping authority for Malaysia and to conduct the whole spectrum of testing, education and prevention, and as advocates of the fight against doping in sport. Internationally, we coordinate with the regional anti-doping body (Searado based in Singapore) and the Wada (World Anti-Doping Agency) office in Tokyo and Wada in Montreal. Adamas was launched in 2007 as an administrative organisation under the sports ministry and after 10 years, we plan to enhance and upgrade this agency. At the moment we lack human and financial resources to execute the whole spectrum of our duties. We are compliant and adherent to two instruments of anti-doping, the World Anti-Doping Code and the Unesco International Convention against Doping in Sport.
Q: Why is doping in sport such a serious issue?
A: We are committed to this fight against doping because doping robs sport of its integrity. We must ensure that athletes perform using genuine means and methods without any aid from banned substances. We feel that the principle of fairplay is always important in sport but at the same time, doping presents a clear danger to the health and well-being of athletes. It goes beyond sport as well as there are many people involved in recreational sport, in a variety of activities, abusing banned substances. It has gone beyond the national sport fraternity and penetrated recreational activities and presents a clear danger to public health.
Q: Why are athletes influenced to dope?
A: The work we do should and will have an impact beyond the confines of high-performance sport, which does not exist in a vacuum. A lot of things we have to fight in high-performance sport are factors which originate and are influenced by society such as attitudes and behaviour that give rise to the risk of doping in general society. There is a lot of work to be done when a young athlete is being developed so it is not just about sporting importance or scientific aspects, but also character, attitude and behaviour that they adopt the right values. We have to be realistic and recognise that athletes are human. Since we have adopted a zero-tolerance culture, that in itself means nothing without achieving zero incidents. There are so many factors and people which influence athletes and the values that they undertake. This has to be a method of shared responsibility by everybody who touches an athlete’s life.
Q: How is Adamas working to battle doping in sport?
A: Adamas’ work is outlined clearly. But it would not succeed without the cooperation of sport federations, coaches and support staff, team doctors and conditioning staff. All these people involved in an athlete’s development must adopt the same zero-tolerance culture and move hand-in-hand to ensure the athlete is safe from doping. How do we exercise our leadership or influence the athlete so that they will always have pure performance at heart? The fact that the athlete must have a lifestyle and values which are appropriate to their aspiration to be the best must come before any other consideration. The thing now is to identify partners in society and for the anti-doping authority to be seen as not only being a punitive agency but to reach down to the root cause of why these things happen. There should be a new movement that will be all-inclusive that starts at the very back-end of when an athlete commits himself to a certain sport. Not just awareness or education programmes which do not influence the development of proper behaviour. We look at what coaches and scientific support staff do on the job who we view as valuable partners.
Q: What innovative approaches can be taken to prevent doping?
A: If an athlete is tested and monitored periodically, then it is difficult for anybody to be abusing banned substances. Because any sudden gains in training would be detected even before the test is done. How do you account for this fantastic progress when the gains you get do not commensurate with the work you put in? In the case of sprinter Azmi Ibrahim (in 1996 for the diuretic furosemide), when he was asked to account for the drastic improvement in his performance, his coach said it was due to weight training and downhill running. Sometimes people give excuses as if they think we are stupid. We are not people who disbelief you. We would like to believe what you say. But what we believe does not matter. What the evidence shows matters. The principle of strict personal liability means that saying the coach gave it to me or my friend influenced me cannot be accepted. Unless someone puts a gun to your head, nobody is forcing you. Now everyone who tests positive will say they are innocent but you must put up your hand and say this substance was found in my body and I’ll take the fall. The rules and regulations are fair because if you want a reduction in the length of your suspension, you have to offer new light on the situation. If it’s someone else’s fault, you have to provide evidence. As for the root cause, Adamas should not be more curious than the national associations. If we as the anti-doping authorities are more concerned than the sport federations, then we are in deep trouble.
Q: There were 14 positive cases in 2016, including three at the Malaysia Games. How alarming is the situation in the country?
A: The worrying thing is not so much the number because in the scheme of things, the actual percentage of positive cases might still be the same because there are more athletes in training. The worrying point is that these are young athletes competing in the Malaysia Games. They are not internationally recognised yet they have fallen into this trap. We have to get to the bottom of this involving the state sports councils and state associations. The zero-tolerance policy must cascade down to development athletes. It begs the question of prevalence of banned substances, like anabolic steroids, and how is it regulated. It also presents concerns to health authorities that they might want to look at and the licensing of businesses which make these drugs available. How big is this iceberg? We are always vigilant with national athletes but then here too we get inadvertent cases like those consuming diet pills, which contain sibutramine. For the hardcore ones, we must find out if there is a movement out there which organises this activity.
Q: How do you get the message through to athletes about the dangers of doping?
A: The manner in which we educate athletes is to tell them doping is bad but perhaps we are preaching to the choir. We are not reaching the athletes, especially those who do not attend seminars and talks. Strong athletes may not be compliant characters. We have to go down to the ground and seek access and make observations and explore interactions with athletes in a real-time basis to deliver the message beyond the confines of the classroom. We may include one-to-one situations, looking at informal modes of education. There might be questions we get answers to from this interaction. It is both an educational and a fact-finding opportunity because people might be afraid to volunteer information in a big group such as a classroom.
Q: Should Adamas become a statutory body as Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has mentioned?
A: Steps have been taken for some time since the start of 2015. There were a few matters discussed. Either we tag this to existing legislation such as the Sports Development Act or do we have a stand alone parliamentary act. With the former, it has been explored but the minister feels Adamas should have its own anti-doping act upon which Adamas will have full spectrum of strength and empowerment to do its job in its entirety. We are doing some work very well like sample collection and results management but we need to step it up and recognise that Adamas as a unit is not going to achieve much. I look forward to the minister’s guidance and it is clear in the general directive. It will take a substantial amount of time. The process is not an easy one, we are under no illusions and it’s not something that should not be hurried.
Q: Do you think doping in sports should be criminalised?
A: We continue to monitor developments and what other countries have done. It is not an easy thing to do but we recognise that certain people seek to exploit athletes which is an act that endanger other people’s lives. Clearly in any walk of life, that is a criminal offence. If somebody is harmed, they can take personal action against those who exploited them. Countries like Australia, Britain, France and US have established a section within their anti-doping authority where expert criminal investigators are brought on board to conduct investigation because they have the expertise and experience.
Q: What sense do you get from the national sport associations of their seriousness in the fight against doping?
A: We seek total commitment from national federations and for them to be partners with us. If they are going to keep quiet whenever something happens, it’s now time for people to speak up. They need to say things which show they are the guardians of their sport. Unless someone wants to argue that anti-doping should be a part of the fabric of their sport, then we would like to hear what they have to offer. If their behaviour shows that they don’t care or they themselves play an active part in it, that is why the World Anti-Doping Code does not seek to punish athletes alone. It seeks out who else is involved, whether coaches, support staff or officials. You have seen how a whole country’s (Russia) sporting structure has collapsed because of doping.
Q: When will Malaysia have an accredited anti-doping laboratory lab again after the facility in Penang lost its accreditation in 2010?
A: There are many factors that led to the loss of the accreditation. We have heard so many arguments for and against the reestablishment of the lab. But it is not the job of Adamas to reestablish the lab. The roles of Adamas and the anti-doping lab are complimentary but separate. The minister has gone on record that Malaysia should regain the accreditation status. We recognise the advantages of having our own lab since we now send samples to be tested in India or Thailand, which is costly. Adamas may be involved in giving the government advise on the feasibility and process of getting the lab going.
Q: How big a constraint of human and financial resources are on the activities of Adamas?
A: Any anti-doping agency will start small. In Japan, they started with three staff but grew to have 33 staff in no time at all. Not because they wanted to be a large organisation but they had to put people to serve certain functions to get the job done as it should be done. They have to address the basic systems and processes in anti-doping, look at emerging issues and anticipate emerging issues. So there is no sense in trying to be reactive all the time, you must be proactive because the threat is big in terms of continuing development of new drugs and new methods to cheat. We need to keep in step with the latest issues otherwise the cheaters will always be ahead of us.
Q: What is Adamas’ main expenditure?
A: The testing of samples takes up more than half of our expenses. To analyse samples takes money and we have to send it overseas. This is something that curtails the actual number of tests we can do. The tests we need to do is not limited to the top-line of athletes but also the thousands preparing for the Malaysia Games. We are talking about testing in competition and out of competition. Every ringgit spent extends beyond sport because it is also a public health issue.