FORMER journalist Johnson Fernandez (pic) was given the mandate to become the new president of Kuala Lumpur Hockey Association (KLHA).
KLHA is the most active association in the country, and Johnson had no challengers to the hot seat.
In fact, all the office bearers were unopposed, with V. Rajamanickam
returned as secretary.. a post he has held for the last 22 years.
Abu Huraira Yazid is still deputy president while the vice-presidents are Mej (rtd) Raj Kumar, Faithal Hassan, S. Samson and James Andrew. Daljit Singh remained as treasurer.
Founded in 1981, KLHA has many divisions in their league, as well as a handful of development programmes running simultaneously. There's never a dull moment at their field at Jalan Pantai.
Johnson, during his journalism days, was a hard-hitting columnist who had hockey closest to his heart.
"It's a honour to be the fourth president of KLHA, and I have many plans for the association, but I can't say much until I have a discussion with my council members at a later date," said Johnson.
Rajamanickam said the priority would be fund-raising as they have a full calender every season.
"We are a very active association but money is short after our president George Koshy left us. He use to fund many of our programmes, but now we will have to look for sponsors and that's our first priority now," said Rajamanickam.
The 'new' KLHA council then nominated Koshy for president and deputy president at the May 13 Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) elections.
If Koshy gets two more nominations, he will be eligible to stand for presdient and the challenger would be Selangor HA president Datuk Seri Subahan Kamal.
"We have nominated George for president as well as deputy president for the MHC elections, while former KLHA vice-president K. Maheswari has been nominated for the women deputy president’s post," said Rajamanickam.
S. Shamala, current MHC vice-president, will also stand for the women's deputy presdient elections. In the men's section, Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad will be challenging Koshy and any other nominees.
"KLHA feel Shamala is wearing too many hats as she is also a council member of AHF (Asian Hockey Federation), in the FIH committee as well as vice-president of the Selangor HA.
"That's why we nominated former player Maheswari as she would be more available in MHC matters," said Rajamanickam.
However, Koshy and Maheswari were not consulted on their nominations, which close on April 28. They have until May 9 to withdraw from the race.
Kooshy has repeatedly said that he does not want to stand for the MHC president's post and efforts to contact him were not returned.
