Besides his immediate predecessor Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail who made an unceremonious exit upon reaching his 60th birthday in September, Rashid is the only survivor left from the batch of officers who joined the agency in the late 80s.
Upon completing his diploma in accounting from ITM (now UiTM) in 1987, Rashid joined the NSC as assistant accountant a year later, when the agency was headed by former national hockey goalkeeper, Datuk Kamalul Ariffin Abdul Rahim.
Those were exciting times for the agency, established according to the NSC Act in 1971 but reactivated only in 1982 under Datuk Noh Abdullah, as Malaysia was preparing to host the 1989 SEA Games with various strategic development programmes being introduced.
Under the then Youth and Sports Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, the National Sports Policy was launched in 1988, along with Tunas Cemerlang, NSC’s pet project in collaboration with the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSC) launched in January 1989 focusing on identifying the best athletes in the 13-15 years age group from four core sports – football, athletics, badminton and tennis.
Later on, sepak takraw and women’s hockey were added into the calendar.
Within two years, almost 4,000 athletes and 400 coaches from the six sports were identified in the NSC data base.
In the ensuing three decades, Rashid was content on being the peripheral figure at the heart of the system, serving a total of five director-generals, including Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad, the late Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong, Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz and Shapawi.
As NSC rolled out elite high-performance programmes such as Jaya’98, Gemilang 2001, Road to London and Kita Juara, Rashid loyally played a supporting role behind the scenes.
Plan A was to extend Shapawi’s services beyond the mandatory age of retirement which would have enabled Rashid to complete his six-month leave entitlement pending retirement in April 2024, but the former’s health issues forced Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh, to opt for Plan B.
As the head of a statutory body, Rashid realises the magnitude of his task.
Born in Penang but grew up in Sungai Petani, Kedah, Rashid, who obtained his Masters in Business Administration in 2009, has to play ball with certain individuals, which is unavoidable in our political and societal landscape.
And he knows the NSC have come under constant criticism and been accused of a lot of things – from getting involved in power play and being penny wise and pound foolish in terms of funding.
While senior athletes have expressed their disappointment at the lowly rate of training allowance, the package for senior full-time coaches on NSC’s payroll is now placed under scrutiny. The present range of RM2,500 to RM4,500 is no longer attractive.
Among the National Sports Associations (NSAs), the main grouse was NSC’s bureaucratic policies and a funding process that is inconsistent.
The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) have been pushing for reforms in terms of funding, by proposing a four-year cycle based on the Olympics as opposed to today’s practice of relying on the annual budget announced by the Government, disbursed to the NSAs through the NSC.
OCM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria has been calling for a reset to the whole system, with the NSAs being empowered to run their own training programmes while the NSC are restricted to being a funding agency.
The idea is to build capacity for the NSAs so that they would be able to employ qualified personnel with technical, high-performance, sports science, management, financial, marketing and media background to run the daily operations of the association.
This, however, calls for political will by the political masters.
As a baby boomer, Rashid needs to confront an eco-system that comprises Gen X and Y among policymakers, and athletes from Gen Z and the Alpha generation amidst today’s social media frenzy.
As the last of the Mohicans, Rashid faces a new frontier, between sports, the civilised game in nature, and the savage realm of the warlords.
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