OCM Weekly Highlight - 27 June 2010

OCM Weekly Highlights

27th June 2010

OCM Official Website: www.olympic.org.my

Coming Events

Press Conference on National Basketball League 2010 – 1st July 2010 at 11.30 a.m. at Olympic Sports Hotel,

12th Asian School Tenpin Bowling Championship 2010 – 5th to 12th July 2010 at Megalanes Lanes KL, Endah Parade .

Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Championship Round 3 – 17th and 18th July 2010 at Precinct 6, Putrajaya.

AYAM A1 – Kuala Lumpur Youth (U16) Boys & Girls Volleyball Championships 2010 – 6th to 8th July at Pusat Kecemerlangan Sukan Cochrane KL and 9th to 11th July 2010 at SMK Sri Sentosa Kucai Lama, Kuala Lumpur.

14th OCM Executive Board Meeting – 20th July 2010 at 4.30 p.m. at OCM Boardroom.

157th OCM Council Meeting – 24th July 2010 at 9.30 p.m. at Level 2C, Wisma OCM Phase II.

14th Malaysia Woodball International Open Championship 2010 – 28th July to 2nd August 2010 at Taman Metropolitan Batu, Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian Ladies Amateur Golf Open 2010 – 3rd to 5th August 2010 at The Mines Resort & Golf Club, Selangor.

10th Asian Karate Federation Junior & Cadet Championships Hong Kong – 5th to 8th August 2010 at Hong Kong.

2010 Olympic Day Run – 26th September 2010 at 7.30 p.m. at Dataran Merdeka, Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Championship Round 4 – 6th and 7th November 2010 at Precinct 6, Putrajaya.

29th Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly 2010 -13th November 2010 at the Garden Hotel Guangzhou.

7th OCM-Tan Sri Alex Lee Charity Golf Tournament 2010 – 1st December 2010 at the Saujana Golf and Country Club.

MAJOR SPORTS EVENTS 2010

2nd ASEAN Schools Games 2010 – 13th to 19th July 2010 in Kuala Lumpur.

1st Youth Olympic Games 2010 – 14th to 26th August 2010, Singapore.

Delhi XIX Commonwealth Games 2010 – 3rd to 14th October 2010, Delhi, India

XVII ANOC General Assembly 2010 – 20th to 22nd October 2010 at Acapulco, Mexico.

1st World Olympic Sport Convention – 23rd October 2010 at Acapulco, Mexico.

NOCs/IOC Executive Board Joint Meeting – 24th October 2010 at Acapulco, Mexico.

16th Asian Games Guangzhou 2010 – 12th to 27th November 2010, Guangzhou, China

2nd Asian Beach Games Muscat 2010 – 8th to 16th December 2010, Muscat, Oman.

News Items

29th OCM Annual General Assembly 2010

The 29th OCM Annual General Assembly 2010 was held on 26th June 2010 at 9.30 a.m. at the OCM Indoor Sports Arena, Level 3, OCM Indoor Sports Complex, Wisma OCM Phase II, Kuala Lumpur. A total of 33 Ordinary Members with 78 delegates, 11 Associate members with 12 non-voting delegates, and observers from the Sports Commissioner’s Office, the National Sports Council Malaysia and the Institute of Sports Malaysia, attended the above General Assembly. Except for Vice President, Ms. Low Beng Choo, who was overseas, all the elected Office Bearers of OCM were present. Present were also the Director of the National Olympic Academy, Dr. Tan Siew Eng, the President of the Malaysian Athletes Commission, Ms. Phan Su Ming and the Hon Secretary, Ms. Chee Ee Laine.

The General Assembly approved the Minutes of the 28th OCM Annual General Assembly held on 30th May 2009. On the request of some members, the President brought the Agenda Item on the Proposed Amendments to the OCM Constitution from Item 7 to Item 5.

Proposed Amendments to the Constitution

The General Assembly considered the proposal from the National Archery Association of Malaysia (NAAM), to amend Article 14.4 of the Constitution of OCM, by introducing a clause restricting any representative of any Ordinary Member of OCM, who is 70 years and above or who have held a post or position in OCM for a total of 20 years and above, from being nominated as a candidate to stand for office in OCM. The rationale for the above proposal was to be consistent with Rule 16.3.3 and Bye-Law to Rule 16, 2.7.1 of the Olympic Charter.

The resolution was introduced by Encik Mohammad Yazid Yahaya, Vice President of the National Archery Association of Malaysia (NAAM). He stated that when OCM amended its Constitution 2 years ago to be consistent with the Olympic Charter, it did not include a provision to restrict the age of Executive Office Bearers to 70 years and to hold office for a maximum of 15 years (NAAM proposed 20 years). As such, with the proposed amendments, the Constitution of OCM would be consistent with the Olympic Charter.

We require young leaders who are fit and active to bring progress. There is No Progress without Change, New Idea, New Style, New Methods, Need New Leaders. If a leader could not bring about any change during 20 years of service and at age 70 years, they would not bring about any change after another 25 to 30 years in the future.

Even in USA the greatest democracy the President gets two terms only. Many countries are now trying to introduce the 70 years old limit in sports. Some governments are trying to introduce the laws; example in India. Malaysian culture doesn’t challenge the dead wood but allow them to remain. If the new rule is introduced, people will come forward to take responsibilities. Good leaders who can provide service could continue to contribute as committee members to their Council and organizations. We don’t have to hold position to contribute. OCM would be a model - many associations (according to MOM/MSN/KBS) are having leaders hanging on to position too long.

In the debate that followed the above presentation 8 delegates spoke against the proposal. The summary of the points presented by the 8 speakers are as follows:

1. The comparison between the IOC and OCM is inappropriate as the two organizations are totally different. The IOC is a private organisation where its members are appointed by the IOC. Once appointed, the majority of them remain as members until they reach the age of 70 years. The OCM on the other hand is an organisation representing its members which are national sports associations (NSAs) and its office bearers are elected by the delegates of the NSAs once every two years to represent, act and work for the NSAs.
2. The office bearers of OCM are volunteers drawing no salary or allowance, contributing their time and money for the benefit of the members of OCM, who elect them once every two years. As such, unlike appointed employees (government and business entities), they do not have retirement age but are subject to the powers of the delegates of the NSAs whether to elect or not to elect them every two years. As such their tenure of office is most insecure and is totally dependent on the evaluation by the delegates of the NSAs whether to elect them or not to elect them every two years.
3. All the speakers stressed the fact that Malaysia is a democratic country and the Olympic Charter states that there should not be any discrimination on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement. As such the proposed amendment to have an age-bar and a tenure-bar is a form of discrimination.
4. OCM belongs to the Members and as such, the powers of OCM are in the hands of the Members of OCM and not the office bearers. The Members have the opportunity once every two years to decide who should represent and serve them. As such why the need to amend the Constitution of OCM, which requires a two third majority, when a simple majority of one single vote could retire off a non-performing office bearer every two years or if really serious, an extra-ordinary General Assembly could be convened by the Members of OCM for the same purpose. The proposed amendment would in fact reduce the power of the Members to elect anyone of their choice.
5. The members of OCM are mature and intelligent sports people and they could easily evaluate the performance, productivity, honesty, integrity, transparency, etc., of the candidates before they vote or not vote for anyone candidate.
6. The performance and contribution of a person should not be based solely on age and length of service. However, if NAAM is convinced of the importance of the above two factors, is there such provisions in their own Constitution?

The resolution was then put to a vote and was defeated with only the 3 votes of NAAM supporting the resolution, 3 votes from the Softball Association of Malaysia abstaining and the rest against the resolution.

The President presented the 28th Annual Report for the period 16th May 2009 to 15th June 2010 and the Financial Report for the period 1st January to 31st December 2010 and highlighted the great progress achieved by OCM over the past period, financially and in sport development, which he listed as follows:

• The achievement of surplus every year since 1992. For the year 2009, a surplus of RM693,187/= was achieved on a total income of RM9,445,838/=.
• For the second consecutive year provided an annual administration grant totally RM276,000/= to the members of OCM.
• The evaluation of Wisma OCM was completed and the Property, Plant and Equipment of OCM are now valued at RM55.3 million as against RM22.2 million in 2008.
• Established the OCM Trust Management Committee to manage and operate the OCM Trust Fund with Perpectual Trustees Berhad.
• Participated and achieved good results in 2009 at the 1st Asian Youth Games, 1st Asian Martial Arts Games, 3rd Asian Indoor Games and the 25th SEA Games.
• Organised all OCM’s annual events, courses and special events such as the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games Queen’s Baton Relay and Creating a Sustainable Legacy of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games by Planting a Tree in Wisma OCM, etc.
• Made an impressive and low cost but unsuccessful bid to host the 125th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur in 2013.
• Successful launch and signing of a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Astro Arena, which has started broadcasting on 26th March 2010 on Channel 801.

Conclusion

In conclusion and from the unanimous support of the members of OCM for the Annual Activities Report and Financial Report and the almost unanimous support against the proposed amendment to the OCM Constitution, it is obvious that the remarks of NAAM were totally incorrect and exaggerated. To indirectly refer to some Office Bearers of OCM as ‘deadwood’ and implying that OCM had not made any progress over the past 20 years and would not make any chances for the next 20 years, were totally uncalled for and false, as the past track record of OCM shows that OCM has made tremendous progress over the last 18 years from 1992 to 2010.

The fixed assets of OCM has increased from RM9 million in 1992 to RM55 million in 2010, while its current assets have increased from RM1 million to RM10 million over the same period. What was even more satisfactory was that the increased in the financial position of OCM was on top of increased activities as well as steady improvement and expansion of its sports development programmme. Today, OCM is acknowledged as one of the good NOCs in Asia and the World and is highly respected by the IOC, ANOC, OCA, CGF, SEA Games Federation and all the IFs in the world.