By Teo Ser Luck, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, MCYS
Teo Ser Luck competing in the Ironman 70.3 earlier this year. (Photo © Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports file photo)
The Youth Sports Development Committee (YSD) that I chair oversees the funding disbursement for the athletes preparing for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) that will be held in Singapore in August 2010.
Part of the preparation process is to select and train the athletes.
However, what some committee members thought was a simple, straightforward process of selection isn’t so.
We are meeting unexpected resistance from some NSAs when we ask that the trials be transparent, fair and open.
Is it too much to ask?
Ed’s note: If you have a comment or personal experience of the selection process, feel free to share it in our comments section and we will forward it to Mr Teo Ser Luck.
About Teo Ser Luck: Ser Luck is the Senior Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS). He is a politician, Ironman triathlete, and successful businessman. With a passion for sports and a heart for youth sports in particular, Ser Luck is on a quest to strengthen our sporting culture. We at Red Sports welcome him to our community as he looks to engage us on the issues close to his heart.
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Transparency is not only reserved for selection of athletes but has been shamefully lacking in the management of our Singapore Karate Federation as well. It has led to disenfranchisement and frustration among its members. With Singapore positioning itself as a major sports hub, should we not also be promoting our very efficient and capable management form? If we are really serious of promoting sport in Singapore we have to be very, very serious of making a change from current bad practices in NSAs
After reviewing the current squad list that was published on the Singapore rugby website, I was shocked to see that there are so many players from the lower divisions in the squad. What tournament are they training for? If this is the men’s national training squad I would think that it is a joke. I see so many names on there which were only slightly above decent when playing with them in school, now they are playing in the national team? With this team I think Singapore will kanna whack by India just like the 7’s team.
I feel for the state of Singapore rugby, I remember a few years ago when the Singapore team smashed the Hong Kong training squad, sadly to say this will no longer happen.
I think the management needs to review the situation, esp if the Singapore Union wins this poll. I hope that Low Teo Ping, re examines his staff. I believe that if you ask anyone in the rugby circles here there are plenty of people who would say Ian is a very arrogant person.
Does Singapore not have better players than the ones chosen? Please someone do something about it.
COMMENTS EDITED
i agree with sportsfan.. Anyways, this problem has been going on during my time as well… that’s why most of the talented and gifted players during my playing days can’t be bothered to attend the training with the singapore national team if we are called up because eventually we won’t be selected.. let me take an example.. there’s a time a couple of us got selected to go national training.. I didn’t go as I knew the system then but this other 2 guys went.. and never miss training for 3mths.. then another guy approaches 4 training twice before the selection date and got in..logic? dont ask me.. and the under singapore under 19’s team in my tyme was one of the best team spore eva had.. but after that SRU didn’t follow up with them.. niwei point is the system at SRU has always been like that only this time round its getting worse…
We need to understand the root of the problem of each NSAs. We are talking about the selection of Youth but most NSAs do not have youth development program. May I suggest that SSC takes over the driving seat for the selection. Basically, selection processes are for Team event (eg Football) and Individual Events (eg. Track & Field, Swimming)
For Team Events- NSAs to set up the selection Panel to include National Coach, MOE, SSC etc to conduct selection instead of relying on one or two persons.
For Individual events- NSAs should set the qualifying mark, events and period.
All the selection processes are to be published through media and best timing for selection for team events is during School Holiday window period.
NSAs should understand that their slacking attitude would jeopardize the development of our Young Athletes and bring shame to Singapore during YOG.
find out the root of the problem, is it the management, the coach or NSA? it happened in the seagame 2007. not only in 1 sport but 3. who was hurt? it was the players. everyone else moved on but not her/him.
Admittedly it is true that of late there have been several controversies with regard to the selection of athletes to represent Singapore, however, there are two points which have by and large been overlooked.
Firstly, that the controversy arose in the first place can actually be viewed positively, we should WANT our NSAs to have a hard time choosing athletes because this strongly suggests a high level of compeition between athletes in Singapore’s Sports Fraternity. It is because we have so many athletes pushing each other to perform that the problem of choosing the best one arises.
Secondly, despite the responsibility of NSAs to ensure a fair selection, they have also been taking excessive flak for decisions which will never please everybody. We must recognize that NSAs in Singapore have their limits, with each association vying to improve its standing in the sports scene in Singapore, they must balance what can sometimes be a shoe-string budget. Certainly, they are not able to monitor all potential candidates constantly. This leaves them with a serious lack of information about their athletes. Given this scenario, NSAs just try to make the best decision given what is available to them, in retrospect we might be able to judge whether or not they made the correct decision, but we must also understand if we were the ones in that same position, it is unlikely that we would be able a perfect decision.
Having said this, it is true that NSAs could also use with some additional regulations to improve transparency. 😀
P.S. Just wanted to try and ensure the comments are more balanced otherwise we would just end up playing the blame game.
Perhaps it’s not the NSAs but SSC that makes things difficult to be transparent?
it appears this lack of transparency goes beyond the YOG. let me point out the singapore rugby union since im more familiar with them. it seems the decision making process of the entire union occurs within one person, namely Ian Bremner, CEO of SRU. the coaches may select certain players but the decision is ultimately made by Bremner who will choose players whom he fancies or have not had any run-ins with him. shouldn’t players be chosen on merit instead. the recent selection of the national team to compete is commonly agreed amongst many that it is not the strongest team available. it is disheartening to see how our national side can lose to another singapore select side when the national team by common knowledge should be the best in the country. i have seen how one person changed the face of singapore rugby completely in a negative way and i hope we’ll see this problem addressed in the future. ask the SRU to be transparent.
Politics, Sir. Everyone want name and fame or cover their butt cheeks.