The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| If you hate football, stop reading (Part 2) Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:28 PM PST DEC 13 — Take a tour of Barnet Football Club's universe. Its website is impressive and visitors can buy tickets online to the next home match, even picking a spot from the eight areas of viewing inside the stadium. On top of having ex-Ajax, Juventus and Spurs superstar Edgar Davids in their 32-strong first team, Barnet has an academy, a youth team and a ladies team. Barnet is in all possible terms a complete football club since they tick all the boxes. However, Barnet FC is probably not a major talking point in Malaysia because it currently sits at the bottom of League 2 (the old fourth division), and has a ground capacity for only 6,023 spectators, including the temporary stand. But it functions. And function over form is probably what Malaysia has to endeavour for its football. Malaysia has a football-crazy population, but sadly lives with a badly-drawn and executed professional football league. Which is why it should take the cue from Barnet FC — or other viable football clubs around the world. Malaysian businessmen owning British teams may be stylish but without a self-sufficient local league our future is dim. Sports is a business It is about revenue generation matched by spending discipline, no matter the size. There has to be a rationalisation process, where teams have to match need. In the US there are several major sporting franchises in California, Texas and New York, because those are highly populated states with major cities providing a support base. The base gives a team viewership, following, localised sponsorship and character. There is no shame in thinking along those lines. Indeed the two most successful Asian experiments in the past 20 years went down that path. The Japanese League in its present avatar is a result of restructuring in 1992, as did the Koreans in 1998 tinker with their initial semi-professional structure based on response. The South Koreans may have kept the score down to 3-1 in 1986 World Cup against Argentina by taking turns kicking Maradona, but the reinvigoration of their league over the 20 years has given them the great leap forward. Even a Messi-led Argentina today would not look down on the South Korean national team, and that is by no small measure due to their national league. The main element has to be commercial not political, to drive any restructuring or rethink. Any football club is built on present support base. Any ambitious and growing club will be built on the basic and then possible support extensions — where else the support can come from. These are customers and have to be treated as such. What every Tesco store does for its loyal and transactional clients is what a football club should do for its fans. Which means you can't have a store manager who is really in love with all the products in the store — hugs a peanut butter bottle once in a while — but does not know the customers, or worse does not care for them. The horrible way stadiums are maintained, the atrocious transportation plans to and from them and the alternative madness of the stadium's parking lot show everything is lacking planning let alone imagination. It tells a story. It tells the prevailing attitude. There are several things to tinker. We should consider late afternoon kick-offs. Daytime matches will draw more families and remove direct competition to the English Premier League, for now. The moving calendar for sports must end. There is a different calendar every year to accommodate the fasting month and Malaysian holidays. The country uses a Gregorian calendar, therefore the football-like business has to follow the same route. It is difficult to hardwire into your community if the season is not an annual routine. People enjoy predictability. Again, I don't want the details to cloud the main consideration, to be customer driven. Long before there was any Blue Ocean Strategy, football clubs around the world have realised that operating by ignoring customers is planning bankruptcy. Neither do clubs nor leagues have to operate on massive profitability. The English Premiership is a cash machine, but there is no need to not stop till our own league outdoes it. It is about managing expenditures. The Australian Football Rules or Oz Rules is primarily a professional sport based in the state of Victoria. While the first-teamers in any premiership team are rich if not millionaires, the salaries of the players in AFL are far more modest. Same is applicable in Malaysia, where many young players would be quite happy to play for three times what they would earn if they were having a regular job. A players' union can help them invest their playing income and possible careers after the playing ends. Professional sports need professionals Currently, the Football Association of Malaysia is looking for someone to run their marketing department. The ad was placed on November 26, and applications shut on December 12 and interviews five days later. I am assuming they want to hire a person before the new year. The search to pick a person to drive the number one sport in the country should be a little more robust. Not asking for the person to have graduated with three years of sales experience and no criminal record. It reflects the worth of non-playing professionals in the management of sports in Malaysia. There is a flawed thinking that filling the presidency of any sports organisation will determine the future of the sport. Worse, that person has major work commitments and considers the position a hobby. Professional sports are driven by professionals, and that has to resonate in the industry. Roman Abramovich may own Chelsea football club and can sack any of his managers, but he leaves the day-to-day running of the club to the paid professionals. That is the only way forward for Malaysia. I'm writing this column, should I be running a football club. No. I am a political operative, and so are various politicians who are better utilised staying the business of politics. Professional sports should be run by sports professionals. Take me to the ball game Malaysian football salvation and survival will rely on its national football league. This is why it is absolutely critical to fix our league so that the pool of players we produce are technically equipped, tactically adapt and competitively attuned to succeed. The madness that is our football administration must cease and allow for the light of reason to affect decisions. Right now many things are ad hoc. They are ad hoc because they are not business decisions made by non-professionals. End that, and then we can talk about qualifying for the World Cup. By the way, the Japanese masterplan for their league is all the way to 2092, when I assume none of their administrators would be still alive. Now that's forward thinking. "Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football." — Albert Camus * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| Sadisme Indonesia dalam ‘The Act of Killing’ Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:12 PM PST 13 DIS — Kedekatan dengan teman-teman yang memperjuangkan keadilan untuk korban Tragedi 1965 di Bali membawa saya menghadiri acara "Indonesia Menonton Jagal" yang diadakan di 40 kota/komuniti seluruh Indonesia sempena memperingati Hari Hak Asasi Manusia. Jagal adalah judul dalam Bahasa Indonesia untuk filem dokumentari "The Act of Killing" karya sutradara Amerika Syarikat, Joshua Oppenheimer yang sedang menghebohkan Indonesia. Hebohnya filem ini membuat sesi tayangan terpaksa diadakan secara tertutup melalui jemputan dan lokasi serta identiti penganjur terpaksa dirahsiakan. Bahkan memotret penonton yang hadir dilarang sama sekali atas faktor keselamatan. Hal ini tidak menghairankan melihat pembuat filem, krew dan wartawan yang berbicara tentangnya mendapat ancaman dari pihak-pihak yang merasa panas hati. Filem ini mengisahkan tentang para pembunuh massal yang menceritakan kembali aksi penyiksaan dan pembunuhan terhadap anggota dan sesiapa yang dicurigai sebagai bahagian dari Parti Komunis Indonesia (PKI) di Medan. Sepanjang 159 minit kita akan dihidangkan dengan lakon semula aksi sadisme yang dibawa oleh Anwar Congo, seorang samseng penjaga wayang yang dinaikkan pangkat sebagai pemimpin pasukan pembunuh. Sukses menjatuhkan kerajaan Indonesia pada 1965, tentera merekrut Anwar Congo dan kawan-kawannya untuk melakukan pembunuhan massal sehebat Nazi, Rwanda dan Khmer Rouge yang hingga saat ini kerajaan Indonesia belum bersedia mengungkap kebenarannya.  Satu petikan dari 'The Act of Killing'. Sebuah hal yang pasti, usai menonton filem ini memberikan efek kaget yang luar biasa sehingga sukar untuk saya memberikan komentar pada sesi soal jawab bersama Joshua yang dilakukan melalui Skype dan sesi lepak setelahnya. Fakta bahawa saya sedang tinggal di negara yang didirikan oleh "pembunuh" pasca-1965 semakin membingungkan akal sihat. Dari sisi lain, filem ini berbicara lebih dari pembunuhan massal. Pemuda Pancasila yang didirikan pada 1959 untuk mengimbangi pengaruh PKI menjadi organisasi paramiliter sayap kanan yang ditakuti bukan kerana kecerdikannya tetapi kerana kekerasannya. Pemuda Pancasila yang pemimpinnya boleh menjadi menteri dan wakil rakyat menggambarkan betapa suramnya dunia perpolitikan Indonesia yang dipenuhi perasuah dan penjahat yang bangga dengan perbuatannya. Budaya samseng dirangkul secara rasmi di dalam politik sehingga organisasi "samseng" berada di seluruh ceruk Indonesia. Di Bali menjadi anggota Laskar Bali merupakan kebanggaan buat anak-anak muda, kononnya buat mempertahankan Bali dari ancaman orang luar. Kekerasan yang ditanam dan diinstitusikan buat menghindari tumbuhnya kembali komunis akhirnya membudayakan pembunuhan sebagai upaya penyelesaian masalah. Barangkali kerana terlalu bangga dengan heroisme menumpaskan penjajah dengan darah, budaya membunuh sesiapa yang dianggap musuh terbawa-bawa hingga kini. Musuh berlainan ideologi politik, keyakinan agama dan batas wilayah merupakan jelmaan penjajah Belanda dalam wajah baru. Sudah banyak contoh yang boleh disaksikan: mulai dari perkelahian antara pelajar yang sering menghiasi berita, konflik di Ambon, konflik di Poso dan terbaru konflik di Lampung di antara warga asli dan etnik Bali yang memakan belasan korban dan ratusan rumah dibakar. Jadi aksi bendera Malaysia dibakar dan kedutaan dilempar najis oleh BENDERA sebenarnya untuk ukuran organisasi-organisasi "samseng" ini tiada apa-apanya. Masih sopan dan terkawal. Indonesia yang sering diangkat segolongan rakyat Malaysia sebagai model yang berjaya mempersatu masyarakat melalui satu bahasa kelihatannya semakin hari semakin tergugat. Jika di Malaysia potensi terjadinya konflik berdarah di antara kaum hanyalah propaganda menakutkan rakyat oleh penguasa, tetapi di Indonesia konflik berdarah di antara suku, agama, ras dan antar golongan (dikenali dengan kata SARA) merupakan hal yang biasa terjadi dan akan terus terjadi jika tidak diurai akar permasalahannya. Jadi apa upaya ke depannya? Secara jujur walaupun sudah akrab dengan negara ini, tingkat kerumitan masalah di Indonesia berkali-kali ganda berbanding Malaysia. Mencari terobosan terbaik demi menyelamatkan Indonesia memerlukan pemikiran yang luar biasa dan ajaib. Kini saya faham mengapa pesimisme menghiasi wajah teman-teman di Indonesia selama ini. Semoga apa yang dikatakan seorang teman bahawa reformasi tahun 1998 adalah titik permulaan awal dan bukan titik segalanya kepada Indonesia yang lebih baik menjadi benar. Indonesia wajib dibantu warga dunia untuk terus melangkah maju demi kestabilan serantau dan dunia. Sebagai upaya awal, barangkali pergantian kerajaan di Malaysia yang lebih manusiawi terhadap Indonesia menjadi sangat perlu. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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