Only minor glitches remain

22/07/1998

SPORTS Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday declared that all is
well after chairing the Commonwealth Games council meeting.
He added that only minor glitches need to be ironed out.
"Traffic control during the opening of the National Sports Complex on
July 11 was discussed at length because we discovered that this area needs
immediate attention," said Muhyiddin.
Traffic management, under Senior Assistant Commissioner (II) Dell Akbar
Khan, received plenty of flak from the public. Initial feedback showed
that many ticket holders were given the runaround during the opening of
the complex by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Most got tired of being pushed around by strict traffic management and
went home instead. The National Stadium, with a capacity of 100,000,
admitted about 70,000 people on July 11.
Dell had said that only vehicles with special stickers were allowed to
park at the complex's parking bay, but the rule was broken and many VIPs
with special stickers had to fight their way in and arrived late.
"We also discussed other shortcomings during the pre-Games and I am
happy that most of the problems have been rectified. We received good
feedback from the public and their main grouse was that there were not
enough signboards around the complex.
Guest passes for the opening and closing ceremonies have been increased
from 4,000 to 5,000.
"We have sent invitations to the guests of the government and hope they
will come early and take their places as scheduled so that the ceremonies
will not be delayed."
Muhyiddin, who presented a progress report to Dr Mahathir in the
morning, said: "The Prime Minister was briefed on the feedback received
from the pre-Games and has urged the Games Council to rectify some of the
glitches.
"Towards this, the council will now meet once a week and present their
problems, if any, so that they can be solved," said Muhyiddin.
On the bickering for places in the national teams, Muhyiddin said he
will leave it to the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the various
associations to select athletes based on the criteria that had been
decided.
"OCM and associations have the final say," said Muhyiddin.
(END)