Contributed by reader Ian Chew

China-born athlete Dong Enxin disappeared without a trace recently, leaving the Singapore Athletics Association (SAA) poorer by $300,000, the amount spent on the athlete over a period of 10 years.

Is he simply a villain or was there something fundamentally wrong in the process for him to get away with such mediocre results over that period? This is something we have to look into for our sports fraternity to move forward.

It is too simplistic I feel to place the blame squarely on the foreigner. After all, didn't Jing Junhong and Li Jiawei succeed in bringing table tennis honours to our country consistently over the last ten years? In fact, Li Jiawei came closest to emulating Tan Howe Liang's historic feat of an Olympic medal when she lost narrowly in the match for the table tennis bronze. All of us who witnessed the match were heartbroken!

Or how about Ronald Susilo? Local shuttler Kendrick Lee openly attributes his improvement in skills to the presence of a world-class sparring partner and mentor.

In fact, extending our sphere beyond sports, we can conclusively see foreign talent blooming in areas of politics, economics and the arts. That they have contributed to Singapore being a world class city is not a matter of debate but fact.

Yet the proverbial issue of foreign sports talent is a controversial one among Singaporeans. Chances are, the average man on the street has strong views on the topic.

Adeline Krishnan, 39 who used to be a sprinter for school in her younger days, was quite emotional in her response.

"From my point of view, the talented foreigners with better builds take away the places of our local athletes. It's therefore quite demoralizing to train hard and not be selected. After all, we're Singaporeans!"

Bernard Han, 29, a PE teacher was more measured in his response.

"The recruitment of foreign athletes is, after all, a global phenomenon, and not just confined to Singapore’s shores. I believe that in the long run, it will raise local sporting standards."

And he's right. Like it or not, the issue of foreign talent is here to stay, looking at the way some sports association are going.

The bottom line is this: it is not about the foreign talent but our processes in developing our own sports talent that is crucial. Planned and executed well, foreign sports talents will eventually add to our learning and development of local talent. However, wholesale import for short term success would result in demoralizing our athletes and eventually killing the sports industry.

Even Adeline acknowledged as much.

"Of course, in the bigger scheme of things, if associations develop a good plan for local sports development, foreign athletes can definitely contribute in the team and help in bringing glory to our country!" she admitted.

Here's my wish therefore for the New Year: enough vilification of foreign athletes for their misdeeds, whether real or alleged! Time for each NSA to take a frank and honest look at each overall sports development plan and see how we can improve and support our local athletes, especially from a young age!

Happy New Year!

N.B. The above is the writer’s personal opinion and is not representative of any organization or body.