By S. Selvam
May 7:
THE Malaysian Taekwondo Association — through their sheer defiance — were de-registered yesterday by Sports Commissioner Tan Sri Elyas Omar, making it the first national body to be struck off since the introduction of the Sports Development Act in 1997.
The national body have 30 days to appeal to Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said against the revocation.
"Having considered carefully the case of MTA in relation to their constitutional amendments, in particular to the offending provisions in Article 5.8 and 6.4 of the amendment, as well as the reply from MTA to the show cause letter, the Sports Commissioner has come to the conclusion that there are compelling reasons to invoke Clause 20 (1) (e) and to revoke the registration of MTA with effect from today (yesterday)," said Elyas at his office in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Clause 20(1)(e) of the Sports Act states that the Commissioner may revoke or suspend the registration of a sports body if the Commissioner is satisfied that such a sports body is hindering the development of the particular sport and it is in the public interest to revoke or suspend its registration.
The critical issue underlying the MTA case revolved around the voting rights of the clubs, described by MTA as associate members.
Although clubs are the biggest contributors of monies and suppliers of exponents to the national teams, they don’t have a voice when it comes to the decision making process of MTA. Despite a directive from Azalina and Elyas’ personal efforts in organising a dialogue and presenting several models of governance granting clubs voting rights, MTA, helmed by president Ho Kam Phaw and chairman Chin Mee Keong, never got around to complying with the directive.
Article 5.8 of MTA’s amendment reads: "Club shall mean a taekwondo (MTA/WTF) club duly registered with the Sports Commissioner of Malaysia under the Sports Development Act 1997, whose instructors are registered with the Association and licensed to promote, propagate and teach the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) system."
Article 6.4, on the other hand, states that the General Council may admit membership from duly constituted club as herein before defined.
The General Council may at their absolute discretion deem fit admit a club as a member with or without voting rights depending on the criteria the General Council may formulate from time to time. And as far as Elyas is concerned, these amendments imposed too many pre-conditions on clubs and even then, left the clubs with no assurance that they will be given voting rights or of their status with the association.
"Rather than adopting a positive approach by offering incentives in the form of easy passage to membership with voting rights to dynamic, active and high performance clubs, the MTA had chosen to adopt a negative and obstructionist approach."
However, it could not be determined if MTA officials had received Elyas’ decision as Sports Commission officials could not contact them. The MTA office in Wisma OCM was also closed in the afternoon.
Source from http://www.nst.com.my
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