IT can become confusing when the contradictions that form the lifeblood of politics are combined with sport, but Malaysia shouldn’t be the one complaining.
Thus it was almost humorous that Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary general Datuk Nazifuddin Najib, possibly out of naivety, used the much recycled shield of international federations to not allow government interference in sport.
This came in the wake of the government’s ban on Israeli athletes participating in the World Para Swimming Championship in Kuching from July 29 to Aug 4, with Malaysia’s non-recognition of Israel re-emphasised by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
This has always been Malay-sia’s stand amid continuous humanitarian atrocities and the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel, but we should leave the debates over whether this is an anti-Semitic or humanitarian stance to political debaters and look at the qualification of Malaysian sporting bodies to stand up against government policies such as these.
If Nazifuddin is keen on parroting claims of adverse concerns from the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Counciand the International Swimming Federation over government interference in sporting concerns, then he should also be concerned about non-interference by the government.
OCM, for one, presides over decades of failure to commercialise sports and ensure independence from government interference and this is such an opportune moment to highlight this.
Not one of OCM’s affiliates are capable of fending for itself. In fact, just one, the Malaysia Basketball Association, has a stadium of its own.
Decades of decay have seen national sports associations (NSAs), all of which are affiliated to OCM, slump into over-dependence on government funding for not just events, but development programmes and talent identification programmes.
The FA of Malaysia (FAM), once able to pride itself on being independent of government funding, has since 2015 gone down the same road with the RM80 million government-backed National Football Development Programme.
The vast majority of NSAs have reduced themselves to mere facilitators, even just signatories to sporting development and high performance, while the Youth and Sports Ministry is expected to cough up more and more funds to keep sports going.
Such is the case that some critics even find it convenient to blame sports ministers for non-performance of sports, while the ministry is expected to come to the rescue when NSAs or their events run into financial trouble.
The blinding example of this is Le Tour de Langkawi, which has run a tab of over RM250 million in government funds over 14 years since the ministry had to step in with a bailout package of RM10.7 million in 2006, following the financial mismanagement of its organiser then.
The ministry has until today, been stuck with funding the event to the tune of between RM12 million and RM25 million annually, with the NSA responsible for the sport, the Malaysian National Cycling Federation, unable to provide any solution other than pressuring the ministry to continue funding it.
The structure of sports in this country is filled with government interference, from junior development under state government-funded Malaysia Games programmes.
It has always been a convenient relationship between government and sports association, in some instance even resulting preferential election of office-bearers capable of linking government funding to sports, but a reality that those involved will shy away from admitting. That is until these bodies run foul of the government.
NSAs’ often-repeated first response to threats of sanctions by the Sports Commissioner’s Office for running foul of the Sports Development Act 1997, has always been creating fear over international body sanctions due to government interference.
This time it is Nazifuddin’s claims, that Malaysia stands to lose the rights to host such international events with the continued ban on entry of Israeli athletes, that ring a bell.
It was under his father, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, that Malaysia hosted the last Israeli athlete to enter the country under special approval: Chelsea footballer Yossi Benayoun, during a pre-season tour for the English Premier League club, 2011.
Following that, FAM was forced to apologise to the then Israeli international captain Benayoun over what was deemed anti-Semitic treatment from the crowd when Chelsea played a Malaysian selection at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.
Whether such a reaction from a section of the crowd could be deemed anti-Semitic was debatable, as they simply booed each time Benayoun, then also captain of the Israeli national team, received the ball.
Najib’s administration had then decided to give special approval for Benayoun to enter the country, despite protests over the same reason why the ban is reinforced by the current administration.
Benayoun accepted the apology and the incident became forgotten as part of long-strained and non-existent Malaysia-Israel relations.
But to stand a chance of being taken seriously in such situations, Nazifuddin should realise the situation OCM and its affiliates are in. To bargain, they cannot be as subservient to the government as they have allowed themselves to be now.
Because this government is unlikely to allow itself to be held to ransom over sporting events, no matter how huge, when at stake is the one foreign policy that had put Malaysia on the map as a principled, independent and proud nation.
Arnaz M. Khairul is a former NST sports journalist