Help for helpless voices

Taking positive steps: Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh (centre) with Datuk Low Beng Choo and Datuk M. Rajasekaran at a press conference. — Bernama

PUTRAJAYA: Former athletes Qabil Ambak and Kimberly Yap have been appointed as members in the Sports Dispute Committee (SDC) in an effort to give voice to athletes facing issues.

The appointment was one of the positive steps announced by the committee yesterday, after being swamped with 75 cases last year, mostly of officials airing their grievances for failure to adhere to their associations’ constitutions.

Qabil was Malaysia’s most decorated equestrian rider while Kimberly was a successful cyclist and triathlete.

Both will join president Datuk Low Beng Choo, Jady Zaidi Hassim and Datuk M. Rajasekaran in the committee for two years starting from May 1 this year to April 2027.

“I have appointed the two former athletes in the committee to help solve the issues that are brought up to SDC, so that there will be athletes’ voices. Their experience will be crucial too,” said Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh at a press conference in her office in Putrajaya yesterday.

Experience to ride on: Qabil Ambak, Malaysia’s most decorated equestrian rider, has been appointed as a member in the Sports Dispute Committee.

“Beng Choo will continue in her second term as president while Jady and Rajasekaran are lawyers with expertise in sports laws and sports’ bodies administration respectively.

“With the expertise of each committee member, I’m confident that SDC will be able to solve the issues brought up to them.”

SDC were established in 2018 to resolve disputes with sports bodies or involving athletes but not all issues can be solved by the committee. Last year alone, they had to deal with 75 cases.

Hannah said that issues should only be brought up to SDC after all internal remedies in national sports associations (NSAs) are exhausted.

“Last year, SDC received 75 cases. Most of them should not have been brought up to the committee though as they have not been solved internally yet,” said Hannah.

“All associations need to have legislative committees and try to solve their issues internally first or go to the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) for sports under the council.”

Beng Choo, who has experience in sports bodies’ administration and law, said it was important for officials to understand their own rules.

“Everyone thinks if they have a dispute, they have to straightaway seek help from the Ministry or SDC but they need to solve the issues based on the rules in their constitution first,” said Beng Choo.

“If not, we will not have the jurisdiction to handle the issues. That is the most important advice to all the sports associations whether at national, state, district or when it comes to individuals.

“Of the 75 cases that were brought up to us last year, we effectively looked at only 14 as others had to be solved internally first.

“The majority of the cases were either related to athletes’ selection, constitutional amendments or elections at the national and state levels.

“For SDC, we had two hearings. One was regarding the selection of the athletes while the other was a complaint by an athlete of her treatment when she went for an international tournament

“Just like in court, you don’t run to the federal court or court of appeal, you need to go through the process. Unfortunately, we are bound by the process,” added Beng Choo.