Foul!

I had a conversation with City Youth Academy's Mohd Sulaiman Gerrard Abdullah yesterday. He said business has dropped tremendously as parents are being cautious following the rise in Covid-19 cases. "Some 90 per cent of trainees have pulled out from training. It's nothing to do with (fasting during the holy month of) Ramadan but due to (the rise in the number of) Covid-19 cases," said Sulaiman. Being a father to a 15-year-old, he understands how parents feel.  "It's frustrating. Business has been really bad and now this. I just wish people will stop going out for no reason and help curb the spread of Covid-19." Other youth academy owners, however, feel differently. They said business has not been affected as parents still send their children for football training. "Perhaps some of these academies rely on school football fields and when there is a case reported in school, the school shuts down and those renting the field aren't able to use it,...

On March 9, Datuk Ahirudin Attan - who is the National Press Club of Malaysia president and Executive Advisor and the Executive Director at Petra News - wrote: We at the NPC don't make it a habit to ask the Government for handouts but, I told the press conference, it would be nice if YB Khairy Jamaluddin, our de facto vaccine minister, would recognise the role of journalists as frontliners in the war against Covid-19 and make us part of the priority group for vaccination.   His views were picked up by numerous news organisations, including Berita Harian  and Getaran .  On April 22, Getaran's Mastura Malak asked the government where is the Covid-19 vaccination for members of the press . She had quoted Ahirudin as saying:  “Pada ketika ini kerajaan dilihat seperti tidak mengambil endah dan sengaja melengah-lengahkan perkara ini menyebabkan para pengamal media masih lagi tidak mendapat vaksin awal, sedangkan kita memang terdedah dan berisiko untuk dijangkiti v...

Update 1pm: The tweet by the Youth and Sports Ministry has been deleted. --  The above was  tweeted by the Youth and Sports Ministry of Malaysia yesterday. The ministry said that Tan Sri Dr M. Jegathesan was the first Malaysian to compete in the Olympic semi finals in 1960 in the 100m event. The below appears on  Olympic Council of Malaysia's website: He (Jegathesan) became the first Malaysian to enter the semi-finals in an Athletics event at the Olympic in 1964 and 1968. In the Encyclopedia of Malaysia Sports and Recreation , there's a picture caption on page 96 (Track and Field) that reads: The centre stage in athletics in the 1960s belonged to three-time Olympian Dr M. Jegathesan. He won the gold medal in the 200-metre event at the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta and became Malaysia's first ever Olympic semi-finalist in the men's 200 metres at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games . And this is Jegathesan's records according to World Athletics . As such, the tweet should r...

  I must thank Olympian Maninderjit Singh, aka Mike, for diligently providing me with daily updates of the international friendly hockey matches happening in Kuala Lumpur. I do, however, find it odd that I'm getting such updates from a former international and not from the Malaysian Hockey Confederation. 😒 Back to Maninderjit, he paid tribute to New Straits Times' senior hockey writer Jugjet Singh's article that was published earlier today. The Malaysian hockey team has lost all their games in the triangular involving Japan and Great Britain thus far.  Jugjet wrote:  Malaysia, despite their home ground advantage, have been disappointing. Covid-19 may have made field training difficult, but it's the same situation for Japan and Britain. So, no excuses here too. Today is Malaysia's last chance to avoid a "100 per cent losses" in the triangular. Arul's men really need to be great against Britain. All the best to the Malaysian team when they take on Grea...

"Dengan itu, mengambil kira untuk kebaikan atlet, KOM dan wakil MSN (Majlis Sukan Negara) memberi kebenaran untuk mereka pulang ke Johor berlatih di bawah Poad. "Bagaimanapun, kedua-dua atlet ini perlu pulang ke MSN untuk latihan bagi acara 4x100 meter pada masa yang ditetapkan. KOM dan MSN akan terus membantu kedua-dua atlet ini untuk mencapai prestasi terbaik mereka." Read the full article in Berita Harian . We've seen similar situations happen in the past.   Obviously we want the best for our athletes.  But consider this. You stay in your parents' house. Your parents provide you a monthly allowance. And they don't ask a single sen from you when you (eventually) earn some money.  Yet, you dictate what you want to eat, who you want to meet and who you want to mix around with because you believe it's your birth right. If I had pulled the same "birth right" stunt, my late dad would pack my bags and ask me to leave his house. He used to say: ...

"Tular pada hari ini pasukan bola sepak kita dapat vaksin. Ada yang tanya adakah pasukan bola sepak kita golongan OKU, warga emas ataupun komorbid?  Tidak. Sebab mereka terlibat dalam pertandingan kelayakkan Piala Dunia. 99 peratus tak pasti layak atau tidak tetapi kita kena bagi vaksin kepada mereka kerana mereka dalam proses untuk pergi ke UAE, kalau tak silap saya, untuk perlawanan kelayakkan Piala Dunia. Itu sebab kita bagi kepada atlet." Ini kata-kata Khairy Jamaluddin ketika sidangmedia Perkembangan Program Imunisasi COVID-19 Kebangsaan hari ini. Kata Khairy, 99 peratus tak pasti layak atau tidak tapi kena bagi vaksin.  Kalau tak main dalam perlawanan kelayakkan Piala Dunia dan ranking negara merosot, orang akan kritik pasukan negara pula. Layak atau tidak, kenalah bagi vaksin. Betul tak?  Kalau belum daftar untuk mendapatkan vaksin Covid-19, sila daftar sekarang.  Daftar untuk vaksinasi melalui salah satu daripada 3 kaedah ini. #LindungDiriLindungSemua pic.tw...

" ... tindakan ini adalah bertentangan dengan matlamat dan asas pelaksanaan program sukan di sekolah. Tindakan segera dan sewajarnya telah diambil oleh KPM." Ini merupakan hasil tulisan Menteri Pendidikan Datuk Radzi Jidin  di laman Facebooknya berkaitan sekolah di Johor yang menetapkan aktiviti sukan and kokorikulum ikut kaum. Semalam saya menulis di blog ini bahawa alasan yang digunapakai oleh pengetua sekolah tersebut dalam menetapkan panduan yang agak rasis adalah alasan yang mengarut  dan tak masuk akal. Soalan saya kepada pihak kementerian - apakah tindakan segera dan sewajarnya yang telah diambil?