Council did endorse decisions

22/08/2002

MALAYSIAN Hockey Federation (MHF) secretary S. Satgunam (pic) said
yesterday that the MHF Council did endorse the decision to refer four
officials to the Disciplinary Board (DB).
After the council meeting held on Aug 18, confusion arose as some
members said that no mention was made of refering umpires Amarjit Singh
and Jagjeet Singh and two State secretaries V. Rajamanickam from Kuala
Lumpur and Penang's Ranjit Singh to the DB for making statements "which
brought the parent body to disrepute".
Kuala Lumpur Hockey Association (KLHA) president Tan Sri Noordin Hassan
had said that the matter was "highlighted" by Satgunam during the meeting.
"I wish to state here that proper procedures were followed and the
Council endorsed the decision to refer the four officials to the DB. We
had sent showcause letters to all of them, of which only three replied.
And also one to independent member of the Executive Council datuk G.
Vijayanathan before the decision was taken to refer them to the DB," said
Satgunam.
The five MHF officials were slapped with showcause letters for making
statements in the press which, among others, criticised the MHF for not
doing enough the promote the sport.
While both the umpires and Rajamanickam had replied to the showcause
letters, Ranjit did not because he claimed that he did not receive one.
Vijayanathan's letter is said to be on its way.
Sabah Hockey Association secretary Ajaib Singh Mann, when contacted
yesterday, also concurred with what Satgunam said: "I attended the council
meeting on Aug 18 where the council endorsed that the four officials be
referred to the DB."
On why the MHF did not haul up their vice-president Datuk Jalil Majid,
who is also the Competitions Committee chairman, because Jalil was the
first to highlight weakness in the parent body: "Jalil explained to us on
which grounds he made the statement and we (MHF) were satisfied with his
explanations and decided that no action should be taken againt Jalil,"
said Satgunam.
Jalil had claimed that competitions were being run without the
Competitions Committee holding a single meeting for years. But after the
issue had blown up into a storm, Jalil claimed that he had given his
mandate to the MHF standing committee to run competitions in his absence.
Confusion arose because some members claimed that during the council
meeting on Aug 18, they were only handed copies of replies from three
officials who received showcause letters.
They alleged that the matter was not put to vote and were surprised to
read in the newspapers the next day that the `infamous four' will be
referred to the DB, and the matter was endorsed at the MHF Council.
On the issue of young players calling it quits to persue their studies,
Satgunam said the matter will be discussed on Sept 9 when the Yayasan Hoki
Malaysia, meets.
"We are very worried witht the present trend where young players, after
a short stint with the national side, decide to quit because they want to
concentrate on their studies.
"This is not a fair deal because some of them had quit after receiving
study aid from the Yayasan Hoki Malaysia. On Sept 9, we will decide on how
to stop this unhealthy trend," said Satgunam.
Among the young players who recently quit to study are Tajol Rosli and
S. Shanker.
(END)