paradigm shift for sarawak football

FOOTBALL SARAWAK: A NEED FOR A PARDIGM SHIFT

1.0 Background Information

Football management has always been under the purview and responsibility of Football Association Sarawak(FAS). FAS responsibility is immense encompassing the management of the Senior Team that competes in the Malaysia Super League(MSL), developing young players through the President Cup and Belia Squads and most importantly to ensure there is a vibrant grassroot football at all levels taking place. FAS though due to possibly poor management and non-capacity to shoulder such heavy responsibilities has been mired with all manners of problems notwithstanding its deep financial debts.

This Season(2007/2008); some attempts have been made to put FAS in the right direction and footings notwithstanding the following:-

· No issue of players salary not being paid as sufficient fund raised at least to sustain the season.

· Strict, transparent and IT based financial system incorporated.

· Engagement of a foreign coach, Singaporean Jamaluddin Kunju who was expected to inculcate a new culture and disciplined approach in the set-up.

All these good intentions can only “prop up” FAS temporarily as the heavy burdens of previous years issues are too insurmountable to make FAS a vibrant, healthy and professional set-up. It may take a number of years for this to happen and the biggest losers will be definitely SARAWAK FOOTBALL. The recent issue of bookies scandal in an ironic way, FAS should be applauded for having the courage and resolve to report to ACA on the improprieties. This augers well for a new paradigm in management of Sarawak football.

2.0 Proposal for a Paradigm Shift in Management of Sarawak Football

The most obvious obstacle in efforts to revitalize Sarawak Football is the “sick state” of FAS and it will take a long period to rehabilitate FAS. Thus if the present structure is still maintained, football Sarawak will further slump into oblivion. The apex or yardstick for football success is the success of its Senior Team. Fans and aspiring young players will thus have a right “role model” to idolize or aspire for. The new paradigm shift is based on the following concepts:-

(i) The Senor Team will be managed separately from FAS i.e. run as a club based structure with its respective organization set-up.

(ii) The Stadium Sarawak and the Senior Team will be managed as one entity so that right alignment of priorities can take place. The club organization will thus have its own ground management personnel.

(iii) The new set-up will initially be under purview of the Ministry of Social Development as Ministry will design and implement a professional-driven structure thus starting afresh without the burdens of bailing out the debt-ridden FAS.

(iv) FAS will concentrate in football development utilizing grant from FAM as it focus on the right priority in the nurturing and development of young and promising football talents. FAS responsibility will encompass the President Cup and Belia Squads and grassroot football management.

(v) A big breakthrough has been the agreement by Hartlepoole United, a first division football club in England to collaborate with Sarawak in guiding the new entity to the proper management for a club based entity. Two coaches from Hartlepoole will arrive end May, 2008 to assess the football squad and reviewing the training programmes. Hartlepoole United has also agreed in principle to “assign” their players as Sarawak’s foreign imports if required and vice-versa to bring Sarawakian players to Hartlepoole for training stint or even for football trials with possibility of playing in the English League.

(vi) As part of the agreement with FAS on the independent running of the Senior Team, FAS will have its President and Secretary General sitting in the Board and mandatory obligation of senior team to have at least five(5) players in the Squad from FAS football academy(President Cup and Belia Squads).

3.0 Conclusion

Sarawakians, like most Malaysians always regard football as the No. 1 sport. After the successful hey days of the late 80s, Sarawakian fans are starved of success. The main stumbling block towards achieving this success has been the acute problems, particularly financial problem besetting FAS. To rehabilitate FAS may require pumping of millions of ringgit and thus Sarawak football will not be able to flourish as long as its Senior Team is managed by the debt-ridden association.

A paradigm shift in football management is thus required. The Senior Team must be ‘separated’ from FAS management as a clean slate of a club based structure Sarawak FC under the responsibility of Ministry will be formed. This will enable Sarawak football to start ANEW and the collaboration with Hartlepoole United will be a good starting reference point to formulate the right structure and processes for Sarawak football management including its stadium management.

The History of Brooke Dockyard

Brooke Dockyard, A Heritage In Perspective
By Ir Zuraimi Haji Sabki
CEO/General Manager

It almost seems ironic that Brooke Dockyard was formed in the same year as the Titanic sunk, may be an earlier realisation on the Importance of having repair facilities for the white Rajah’s boats.

Records stated that Brooke Dockyard was planned in 1907 at about the same time as the Railway. Excavations commenced in 1907 but was brought to a halt in 1909 when the contractor absconded (nothing new here!). Work was finally completed in 1912 and the Dock Declared open by the Ranee Muda on 31st May that year.

The delightful account of the function, which follows, was given by the Ranee Sylvia in her autobiography “ Sylvia of Sarawak”.

"We had not been in Sarawak long when I was asked to perform the ceremony of opening the new Drydock.I shall never forget the ceremony as long as I live. It has been announced in pamphlets and the Sarawak Gazette as one of the most important events in the history of the Sarawak Public Works Department. This did not tend to encouragement, help me to feel at my ease. Vyner was nervous. He has always been stricken by any public ceremony and his restless timidity infected me, so that 1 was already in a bath of perspiration. We all three sallied forth at 5 p.m and proceeded in a boat upriver, until we arrived at he entrance to the dock. A bugle call from the boat heralded our arrival and the gate of the dock was flung open.We were than paddled To the steps inside the gate, up which was ascended to the Hias prepared for our reception.

After having been presented with an enormous bouquet of wild orchids which was smothered in ants, I was then invited to declare the new Dock open . I can remember so well stepping forward and saying in a voice that sounded like a hinge wanted oiling. I declare this dock now open and name it Vyner Brooke.

Hubbub that ensured was incredible. Vyner had prepared a magnificent speech, which he endeavored to deliver. But in the meantime, the Chinese and Malays had gone crazy with excitement and activity. They plunged into the water with ropes between their feet, they swarmed upon the platform laughing and screaming to one another instruction and wishes of good will. Vyner’s speech was spoken but unheard. He did not dare to look at one another, we were on the borders of hysterics”

Many years since then, a lot has happened to Brooke Dockyard. It has to change and metamorphise itself to withstand the test of time amidst a fast changing business environment. Nevertheless is is a Sarawakian heritage that has endeared the passage of time. We are sure in so many years, it has many stories to tell. It can be a story of as the Ranee Muda implied, a source of joy for the local populace for Brooke Dockyard may be the earliest form of industrial employment in Kuching. Apprentices were recruited from the nearby kampongs. There are many examples of people employed from grand father to grand son, a continuing line of employment heritage.

Another story was also relating to Brooke Dockyard’s involvement during the confrontation years in early 1960s. The dry dock played an important role as a focal point in repairing all type of military vessels.

From its humble beginnings at Market Street, Brooke Dockyard has now embraced new challenges at its Sejingkat Yard.The landscape may differ but certain similarities still remain. It must still become the pride of the Kampung people here and also provide the employment opportunities for the eager and able from the Kampung. That heritage should not be forgotten for a symbiotic relation between an organization and its outlying social structure is an essence of survival, a survival that must stem for the time tested virtues of hard work, willingness to adapt changes and mutual respect for each other.

I am sure with that in mind, we can look forward to an exciting future ...

DARE I UNWEAVE THE RAINBOW?

Sipping my brewed coffee and enthralled by the distant wonder of the rainbow one does realise that the world is always best savoured by such indulgence of nature's beauty. As I remarked to my wife that the rainbow vibrant arrays of colours is due to the dispersion of light by the prisms effect of the water droplets I got an instant rebuke. I should not demean the beauty and poetry that the rainbow evoke in us by such mundane observation. There goes the lifelong dilemma of any keen observer of science. They have always been accused of trying to destroy the beauty of life by attempting to explain everything into reducible components of logic and reason.Why can't the rainbow be savoured in its true majestic form and with luck we can find a pot of gold at its end.

The recent 'kerfuffle' of some students achieving 15 or 17 As and being criticised for such excess really puzzled me. Why can't we just celebrate their achievents as just an acknowledgement of God given talents to some people in their ability to have strong reasoning power and have a gift for photographic memory just as we acknowledge Mawi for his singing talents(even if it is a matter of opinion ). My wife possibly is right for reprimanding me for trying to unweave the rainbow as just a mere dispersion of light; but I do believe looking at the world with a scientific, rationale and logical approach has its valued place in our endeavours to make sense of our life. Philosophy admittedly may be an essential meta view that we need in deciphering life's intricacies but I do think that science in all its faults of obsession for details can provide us a realistic view of the world. Why is the colour of leaves green? I like green because it symbolise nature's beauty but will it make us demean again nature's beauty by our understanding of the photosynthesis process and chloropyll as the basic facets of the green leaves? I don't think so.

I remembered during my days as an engineering student ;given an assignment to size a calaytic reactor; figure crunching approach as govern by the principle of empiricsm; equations are formulated; data gathered and basic principles of heat,mass transfers and a dose of thermodynanism need to be understood in order to size the hypothetical reactor.As I now sipped my second cup of brewed coffee one wonders what use were all those knowledge .As a friend remarked for you to get on in this world you just have to be an effective social animal embraced with all the necessary armoury of golfing; karaoke singing skills and the 'techno-who' factor.While not challenging the importance of emotional intelligence and having good social skills I still believe science can still be useful in our day to day manouevres besides just being utilised in our chosen technical professions.As I now realise sizing the reactor is not just trying to calculate Antoine's constants but it is a study and discipline of prediction. It lays out the path through human knowledge of science and mathematics a predictive model with sound factual basis and to rationalise a particular outcome. In this case the correct or optimal size of the reactor .So I am sure science can assist us in our day to day grappling with issues and problems as we try to predict a favourable outcome from all the numerous issues that we face. There's a limit though; you obviously cannot and should not be gauging your way in life selecting your partner utilising a computer model based on some derived empirical formulae.

Having argued all these;i still though will not introduce myself as a man of science in any dinner conversation ;it is more glamorous to be known as a business man or corporate figure for this will ensure you not to be mistaken to be another Forrest Gump.Give me the rainbow 's beauty anytime uh.

AM I A FOOTBALL NUT?

A few years back I bought a t shirt that has the words; ‘football is life;the rest are mere details '. It may be viewed as an exaggerated statement; however as I pondered on my own obsession with the beautiful game it may sound more of the truth than anything else.

Growing up in a kampong in Kuching during the late 60s & early 70s; any boy worth his salt had to play the game. Our kampong team was proudly called ‘bustop’. what a name, imagination in those days must be a scarcity. Those days you have teams with such moniker as 'bombo' goodness gracious me, a name like that made you wonder whether geography is such a difficult subject that you need to name your team after an African boy. Others came up with teams such as 'Sioux', 'gertak', and of course our biggest rivals ‘selepas’. Our derby games always ended up with a replication of a Wang Yu movie except that those bruises were for real. My indoctrination & dedication to the Manchunian reds started with their Busby babes. Flicking those back cover page of the war comics, you drooled at pictures of Bestie & Bobby Charlton. We had our own local footballing heroes, watching the Sarawak cup at the jubilee ground was a sacred ritual, players such as Morshidi Awet, Jahar Nor, Aini Kem to name a few. We imagined ourselves in their moulds, having the guile of Aini Kem in midfield, the prowess of Morshidi Awet were what we boys dreamed then of emulating. Those days your life simply revolved on football, everyday was a football day and to me such unbridled joy reflected the simplicity of boyhood. At my own school, we had the old josephians-thomians rivalry. Thrashing the thomians must be at the same level of delirium experienced by a Celtic fan when his team beat Rangers. Only later did I realise why my school colours were green! At one game I remembered vividly the euphoria that erupted when we beat the thomians 2-1 at the jubilee ground. Saperi or pe'eng our hero then & who can forget Morni Kambri's antics as a bugle playing fan on the sideline. I knew my thomian friends still felt rankled by that defeat.

My football odyssey went up an ante when I went to the birthplace of football for my studies. Doing my A levels in Halifax a remote town saddled within the Pennines, I witnessed one of the greatest upset in FA cup history! Their opponents then was the lesser half of Manchester; city that is. City then had the most expensive player, Steve Daley if I could recall bought for around 1.5 million pounds from wolves; and believe it or not as the saying in the song says; Halifax won1-0 .However what happened after the game could deem to be one of the scariest moments in my life. That was the first & only time I was caught in the frays of football hooliganism. Walking out of the stadium, we were rained by bricks & stones thrown by the mindless poor losers from the Blue half of Manchester. The shay ,Halifax football ground was a mad stampede of Yorkshire men diving for cover, another war of the roses as they said in that part of the world. What happened next was a testimony of how serious football hooliganism was entrenched in the game; the whole town of Halifax was ransacked with shop windows smashed & buildings vandalised. My sojourn with football did not end though; such calamity was just a small respite.

Doing my engineering degree at University of Birmingham put me within access of the most successful English club then, Aston villa. Saturdays were sometimes spent watching the likes of Gary Shaw, Peter Withe; Des bremmer & of course the incomparable Sid Cowans strutting their stuff. Naturally the most awaited Saturday was when the Manchunian reds came to town. Those years though being a man utd fan was not much of a joy with the scousers dominating the English football scene. Another enduring memory I cherished was going on our faculty 's wembley trips watching England playing. Those England games were always special . The bus trip back to Birmingham though was no joy ; if you can imagine having to endure a journey with 30 odd people & you being the only sober one.

During my initial working life; continuing interest in football came naturally .We had a team of overweight; overrated prima donnas under the guise of UK graduate Association Miri team. To be fair we did have some decent players, actually one of them did succeed in making a career in politics.He was a decent goalkeeper then ,good at keeping shots away.I must admit it must have come handy for his future calling. We had our weekend games at the gymkhana club field. I though was proud to say good enough [hmmm] to play for the Shell department engineering team, as usual fantasising that I was the Asian or rather the Pujut version of my hero; Stevie Coppell .The team though was a real riot, comprising expatriates who were possibly not good enough to play for Rochdale’s reserves but still seeing themselves as reincarnation of Billy Wright, John Charles & god forbids Stanley Matthews. That also tells you what the average age of our team was.

I remembered the buzz in town then when Che Su's babes came to town. In my opinion that team was a pure joy to watch; their movements off the ball; their one touch & of course the sublime skills of the two midfield maestros in the form of Ali shafiee & ong Hock Peng. A great team that was destined to be the bedrock of the ngap sayot era. Yes the ngap sayot era was a living folklore for us Sarawakians. I was working in Johor Bahru then, and true to my nature my port of call to satisfy my football mania was the Larkin stadium .Those were the hey days for the Malaysian premiere league. The euphoria & despair of the Malaysia cup semifinal replay at the kallang stadium would be forever etched in my memory. That man Ali Shafiee though achieved notoriety for the wrong reasons during that infamous 'battle' with Kuala Lumpur. I had earlier driven with my Malaccan collegue to KL to watch that game. After the furore; my Malaccan friend was nowhere to be seen; being within a crowd of Sarawakians then admittedly was not a good choice.

Staying & living in Kuching for the past recent years has not ebbed my enthusiasm for the Sarawak football team. I still watch them playing albeit in barely filled stadium at most times. I have observed our natural tendency to be fickle; I have experienced the same gamut of emotions whenever Sarawak won or lost irrespective of the opponents. I have noted the present decline in Malaysian football with the same despair as everyone else. Maybe what we really need are football heroes; heroes that our sons can identify with as they do now with shriek [Rooney], beanpole [crouch] & goofy [Ronal do]. Heroes that was in abundance during the ngap sayot days.As we could imagine then names like Jalil Ramli,Roslan Ismail and Ali Shafiee to name a few were our football icons.Just as I had my heroes in the earlier days, Aini kem, Morshidi awet & Jahar Nor.

Am I a football nut?

You bet I am

THE FOOTBALL STRUGGLE
Football has always been my passion, I still remember the days when sarawak was playing at the jubilee ground. I watched with awe the mesmeric skills of aini kem, morshidi awet just to name a few. My student days in UK deepens my obsession with the beautiful game with saturdays spent watching aston villa strutting their stuff. Thus when approached by fas to join the management committee this season to help out Sarawak's football somehow my heart made the decision and not my usual cool head dictating the appropriate move. All my well meaning friends advised me against such a move. True to human nature when your true love comes acoming, my foray into FAS and sarawak football has indeed been an emotional roller coaster. I remembered my first introduction on the depths of trouble FAS was in, mired with huge debts, owing salaries to players last season , no infrastructure at all on development of football at youth and grassroots level. As someone remarks, only fools will wander in such a web of despair that engulfs sarawakian football. The irony of football management is that success is only measured on a team's performance on the field. Fans either paying or non paying(can bet you aplenty of them) expect a sarawak football team that can play with the sublime skills of the Argies,the physical prowess of the Brits and the precise discipline of the Germans. Enough said! How can you ever conjure such a blend of football players if the "ingredients" were limited to the unavailability of funds and a total lack of youth development programme. Admittedly the season started with optimism(despite the obvious) with a motley crew of local players that were not even selected from the best available in Sarawak. Who wants to play for an employer that cannot pay your salary dues? A move though was also made to acquire some foreign imports hoping as a management member said,to be the nucleus for the team.The first game against PDRM started with full fanfare literally with my former school St. Joseph schoolband playing splendidly a full repetoire of musical formations. Alas a dream start was never to be, with PDRM trouncing us 4-1. I made a promise to be there for the first 4 games irrespective of my busy schedule. The next game was an eye-opener to a novice like me. We were totally whitewashed by Trengganu, a true lesson in football. Trenggganu was vastly superior,the 4-0 scoreline was actually flattering to Sarawak,it could easily be a 10-0 drubbing. That was the first realisation of the enormity of the task at hand,all the bravados and hype during the pre-season was just a denial syndrome for reality was that Sarawak football was at its lowest ebb even before last season. I had sleepless nights thinking of what was the best move for Sarawak. I started to ask questions, I started to have a good hard look at my beloved Sarawak football(read..FAS) ,I started to question some trusted wisdom of ways we do things but most of all I started to have doubts of my own ability to contribute effectively to FAS. Next opponents acoming are the regal team of Malaysian football,Selangor. I have never encountered such "charitable" opponents.Selangor played badly yet we lose 2-0. The next away trip was to Brunei Darusallam. As promised I was there with the team. A different kind of opponents, it was a one man show by a particular Brunei import player from the Maldives island(say it again?). A lesson on how much influence can an import player has on a team performance was there for me to see, a bitter lesson indeed. The bus ride from Brunei to Miri was one long dreary and depressed journey. I realised football cannot be managed based on sentiments and mere words. I realised football cannot be managed in its present "voluntary, now you see me,now you don't" kind of management that is symptomatic of present set up. Football has to be viewed with the same clinical brutality and goals orientated approach as in business. For football in Sarawak to thrive,FAS for a start must be managed in the most professional manner, behaving as a centre of excellence for all others to flourish notwithstanding the senior team. It was on that long, dreary journey that I decided to play a more prominent role in the affairs of Sarawak football. It was then that I decided for all and sundry I will sink and swim with the team , I cannot abandon the ship so to speak when others are already talking of throwing the towel after such a dismal start to the season. For better or for worse I took the plunge of revamping the team and to an extent FAS. My deal with the higher echelons of FAS is that I will do it for this season and hope that by season end,the revival will be on an upswing trend. I take full responsibility for the success and failure for this season,the bucks stop with me.I realise mistakes and oversights will happen on this roller coaster journey but I will not shirk away from my accountability . That was when I also decided to think of one particular man who I believe can revive our fortunes.That man is now a household name in Sarawak,that man is now a very good friend of mine who shares the same passion for football. That man is none other than Jamaluddin Kunju. Let the roller coaster of the expected ups and downs begin but one thing for sure will happen: we will never compromise playing, winning or losing matches with the true spirit of the game.A game that must be played with discipline, honesty and above all sportsmanship. Good luck to you my beloved Sarawak.(to be continued)
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