Below are the views of Dato Sieh Kok Chi, Hon. Secretary Olympic Council of Malaysia with regards to National Sports Associations.
Many cannot accept honesty and frank views currently and the views below really reflect the current state of affairs in the sporting arena, every man or woman for him/herself.
The strength of National Sports Associations (NSAs) depends entirely on the leaders they have to lead, guide and manage the NSAs. Without good, competent and dedicated leaders, such as Presidents, Deputy Presidents, Vice Presidents, Hon. Secretaries, Hon. Treasurers, NSAs will not be able to function well, let alone make good progress.
It may perhaps be appropriate to quote the advice by the late Tun Dr Ismail, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, to his Party members. He said that people should join political parties to serve only after they have achieved certain level of success in their career and never to join a political party with the intention to enrich oneself.
The late Tun Dr. Ismail’s advice can apply to volunteer sports officials as well. In the past, all volunteer sports officials worked full-time and in their spare time volunteered to serve sport. Only when they have achieved stability in their career, did they dare to hold office.
Today, there are many people who strive to be Presidents and Office Bearers of sports organisations, when they are still in the process of furthering their career.
As such, these people have nether the time or the means to really work for sport as volunteers. There are also others whose livelihood depends on sports, such as coaches, sports equipment distributors, sports marketing agents, etc., who also wish to hold office, thereby placing themselves in conflict of interest situations.
The two most important questions a person who wishes to hold office in any sports organisation as a volunteer are ‘Why do I wish to hold office?’ and ‘How can I make the organisation better?’.
