Foul!

"The real winner is Atok (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad), lah." "He may have lost Langkawi, but he has pretty much killed Umno and BN." My phone has been buzzing throughout the day with many sharing their views. But most of them start the conversation with a common question - so will be PM10? The 15th General Election in Malaysia on Nov 19 resulted in a hung parliament. It is an unprecedented moment in the nation's history. The battle to be the next prime minister is between Pakatan Harapan's Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Perikatan Nasional's Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. Anwar is eager to fulfill his ambition of being PM. This is pretty much his last kopek.  Muhyiddin is adamant of reclaiming the top spot in Putrajaya following his brief (17 months) stint in office (between 2020 and 2021). "Dr M's move of splitting the Malay votes contributed to Perikatan Nasional making an impression in GE15." But there were those who insisted that PH, having the mo...

Malaysia Snooker and Billiards Federation president Melvin Chia had late last night informed me about Lim Kok Leong's ( main picture ) historic win at the World Amateur Snooker Championship in  Antalya, Turkey. Lim defeated Amir Sarkhosh, the former Asian Champion from Iran, 5-0. My first question to Melvin was: "So was he there alone, or with a coach?" Melvin replied: "Where got money for full time coach lah . Sam Chong is only hired on an ad hoc basis." Melvin was referring to the legendary Sam Chong, who coached the Malaysian side during the a series of world events held in Pandan Indah, Kuala Lumpur recently. So who was in Turkey? The cue artists who represented Malaysia were Lim, Moh Keen Hoo and Chooi Yew Wah. Their team manager was Iskandar Perwira Putra while another Malaysian was there as a referee. The best ever achievement by a Malaysian before this year's edition was reaching the quarter finals. Not bad for a sport that doesn't enjoy much s...

The general election fever is here. Quite a number of familiar faces in the sports scene will be trying their luck for a place in Parliament. They include Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, who was dropped by Barisan Nasional (BN), and now plans to contest against BN to defend his Arau parliamentary seat. There's also Datuk Seri Megat Zulkarnain Omardin who will be going up against Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in Gombak. Now imagine if the National Sports Council had an 'election'. Its director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail turned 59 on Sept 28. I've been hearing him say " penat lah " (tired) since Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman was Youth and Sports Minister.  It's not easy being in the hot seat - dealing with four ministers (and their four different agendas) since 2018. Then there's shortage of funds and national associations that remain overly reliant on the government's money via NSC. Regardless if Ahmad Shapawi leaves once a ...