Bigger task ahead, says Minister

21/10/1997

SPORTS Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who returned with the Malaysian
contingent yesterday, cautioned athletes not to get carried away with
their Sea Games success.
"Sure, this was the best outing outside Kuala Lumpur and I am very
proud. But we have a bigger task ahead ... the Commonwealth Games," said
Muhyiddin.
Yesterday, Muhyiddin singled out subjective sports as his main worry:
"From what I saw in Jakarta, karate-do, taekwondo and silat points are all
open to interpretation.
And what the Malaysians saw as points, the judges saw otherwise. So we
must think of a way to overcome that."
Muhyiddin said the respective associations must liaise with their
respective parent bodies and find out if there have been changes in the
scoring systems.
"If not, we are going to lose out in the Commonwealth Games."
The other sore point that the Minister noted down from his observations
in Jakarta is mental strength. He is worried that Malaysians still have
the inferiority complex in them.
"We are going to host some of the best athletes in the world when the
'98 Games begin, and the medals won at the Sea Games are not going to help
us if we continue with this negative attitude."
On incentives for those who won silver and bronze, Muhyiddin said: "Yes,
I noticed that some of the athletes did better than their personal bests
or rewrote the Sea Games mark, but ended with a silver medal. Maybe at the
next Games we will decide on incentives for this category of athletes."
The best example is Shalin Zulkifli, who cracked the world record in the
Masters final but ended up with a silver after fumbling in the step-ladder
roll-offs.
(END)