THERE is no New Year's cheer for 144 national athletes who will no longer receive money from the National Sports Council (NSC) after tomorrow, the last day of 2021.
Although many of them are national champions in their own sports, they lost out when NSC slashed the number of athletes in the elite Podium programme from 432 to 288. Those who survived the culling are eligible to receive taxpayers' money for full-time training ahead of next year's Birmingham Common-wealth Games, Hanoi Sea Games and Hangzhou Asian Games.
Sport is one of the major losers when the government decided that more funds should be channelled to Malaysians affected by Covid-19. Having to make way is the Podium Programme, which was initiated in 2016 with an allocation of RM380 million for sports development over five years. For weeks, national sports associations (NSAs) and their athletes were on tenterhooks over reports of the impending funding cuts.
The ominous signs were already there: NSAs receiving letters stating that some athletes may have to be "retired" from a certain programme, and NSAs saying their requests for financial allocations were not "layan" by NSC. Their worst fears were confirmed when there was no mention of a specific allocation for sports in the 2022 Budget on Oct 29.
Based on performances in the past three years, NSC swung the axe on the 144 athletes, as they were not expected to finish anywhere near the podium. No longer are they eligible for salaries, training allowances, rent-free accommodation, free meals, sports science facilities and all-expenses-paid overseas competitions.
What will happen to them? Some may be discouraged into giving up sports. Some may rejoin their previous companies (they were seconded to NSC who took over in paying their salaries). Some may have to drive for Grab or sell things.
Lawn bowler Fairul Iqwal Abdul Muin has started a small roadside coffee stall in Kajang. As the flow of funds dries up, 56 NSAs despair over how they are going to continue with development and training programmes, especially for the Commonwealth, Asian and Sea Games.
In the face of this, the time has come for NSAs to show how resourceful or self-reliant they are. Long used to governmental support, Malaysian sports have not learned to be independent like their European counterparts, which have excelled at world level despite little government help.
But instead of pulling the plug this week, shouldn't NSC have waited until after the Commonwealth, Asian and Sea Games are over, before scaling down its programme?
Let the 144 athletes have the chance to run the full race, so to speak, and not end up as disappointed dropouts. But these are trying times that call for sacrifices. If the athletes are passionate and determined enough, they will exhaust all means to get there, including using their own money (athletes from other countries have done so), and aim to win a medal. If they do end up on the podium, this country is duty-bound to reward or compensate them for their blood, sweat and tears.
Meanwhile, NSAs should "think harder, work harder, look around harder" to keep the life from being drained out of the country's elite sports programme by the tightening of the purse strings.
