Commissioner's Office now last avenue

Elyas does not want the good name of his office or his eventual successor tarnished.

THE door of the Sports Commissioner's Office has been slammed shut on associations effective immediately.

From now, all disputes must be first arbitrated internally, failing which they should be addressed to the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

Sports Commissioner Tan Sri Elyas Omar, after going through the frustration of seeing his decisions challenged by associations, announced yesterday his office will now strictly adhere to Section 23 of the Sports Development Act 1997 and will not deal with the conflicts of sports associations anymore.

According to Section 23, the internal issues of associations must be settled by themselves, their councils or referred to the respective national sports associations (NSAs) as stipulated in their constitution.

"I'm greatly disappointed with several press reports on the perceived failures of the Sports Commissioner on his part to solve disputes in sports bodies. Therefore, the Sports Commissioner's Office will now embrace Section 23 of the Sports Development Act and will not entertain any complaints from sports associations on their internal problems," said Elyas at his office in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
"If the internal issues are not settled, they should refer them to the Olympic Council of Malaysia which has its own mechanism to settle issues.

"If the matters still cannot be solved, the associations must then bring their case to the Sports Minister, as stipulated in Section 24 (3) of the Act.

Under this, the Sports Minister is accepted as the final court of appeal for sports related issues. Of course, the associations can also go to court.

"The Sports Commissioner's Office will only handle disputes if directed by the Sports Minister. Otherwise, I want to protect my officials and also my successor from being tarnished."

Elyas' tenure ends on April 14.

"I have revised my decision as I feel certain cases have dragged on for too long and there have been more than 2,000 cases over the last few years.

"As such, the dispute faced by the Selangor BA (SBA) should be handled by the BA of Malaysia (BAM), while issues regarding silat, tennis and fencing should be handled by the respective NSAs."

SBA has been in a quandary as a committee led by Datuk Zakaria Deros had been elected to office on Jan 13 while V. Subramaniam and his fellow office-bearers, who were elected on March 31 last year, have taken the issue to court.

As for the Malaysia Taekwondo Association (MTA) issue, Elyas said he has left the issue to the sports minister to decide.

Elyas has made several recommendations with the proposal that an ad hoc committee sort out the problem.

Elyas said the final decision of whether the ad hoc committee should proceed with its duties -- to amend MTA's constitution, hold a new Biennial General Congress (BGC) and elect a new council -- without one of its members, Raja Taharuddin Raja Nong Cik, or recognise one of the two factions in MTA is for the sports minister to make