Loh
08-01-2004, 12:19 AM
An article by sports journalist, Tay Cheng Khoon, in today's Sunday Times, makes an interesting argument for Singapore's FTS (Foreign Talent Scheme) on the eve of the Olympic Games at Athens, Greece. He specially mentions the case of badminton players, Ronald Susilo, Li Li and Jiang Yanmei and feels that Singaporeans should be proud of the successes they bring even if they do not have the 'Made-in-Singapore' chop.
Suffice it to say that in Singapore's first independent government in 1965, not a few of the Cabinet Ministers were from then Malaya (now Malaysia) and it was they who made sacrifices and contributions to set the foundations of modern Singapore. Even in today's Cabinet, the acting Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan is Malaysia-born.
AUG 1, 2004
Not Singapore-born, so what?
Time to embrace foreign talents into Singapore's fold and end all dissent
By Tay Cheng Khoon
LET the debate end now, even before the Games begins. Whatever the outcome, let us remember and accept that all 16 athletes going to the Athens Olympics will be competing under the Singapore flag, for Singapore.
It is sad, isn't it, that The Sunday Times should have to revisit the Foreign Talent Scheme on the eve of the world's biggest sporting spectacle.
Surely there are more important issues - like security headaches and drug cheats, like Thorpe v Phelps - to be discussed.
Why then are we engaging the vocal minority in this debate on the FTS? To bring closure to the topic.
However, as Singapore Badminton Association president Lim Swee Say noted at the Singapore Sports Council's SportsWeb: 'I am not sure if we will ever be able to achieve complete acceptance of the FTS.'
Back in the pre-war days, when teams played with five forwards, Chia Boon Leong was an exceptional inside-forward (a position now long gone).
More interestingly, together with the late Chua Boon Lay and Chu Chee Seng, he was a pioneer of the FTS.
That's how old the scheme is, though, where once Singapore was the exporter of talent, today it is a major importer.
The trio went to the Olympics, not as representatives of British-ruled Singapore but of China. Chua was at the Berlin Games in 1936 while the others were in London in 1948.
Why China? Explained Chia, nicknamed Twinkle Toes and who will be 80 on Jan 1: 'Back then, China considered all Chinese as citizens, irrespective of which part of the world they are at.
'Singapore was then part of the British Empire but when China invited me to go for trials in Hong Kong, I accepted. There were players from Shanghai, the then-Malaya, Indonesia.
'I was selected and played against Turkey, losing 0-4. Because no reserves were allowed then, it was quite competitive making the starting 11.'
No one made a big deal about their flying a different flag, neither was there any noise made when China-born Tan Howe Liang captured Singapore's only Olympic medal at Rome 1960.
In fact, he became a national hero for his weightlifting silver.
So why can't a vocal minority of Singaporeans share the glory of Singapore's successes, like at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, just because some of the athletes do not have the Made in Singapore chop?
What would they say if the Singapore health services become the best in the world one day? No glory lah, since acting Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan is Malaysia-born?
Singapore sports associations do not, as a rule, steal established stars from overseas.
Ronald Susilo, for example, crossed over from Indonesia to study at Anglo-Chinese School.
Like him, fellow-shuttler Li Li and table tennis player Li Jiawei came when they were in the teens - nonentities then in their own countries.
As Jiang Yanmei admitted, before coming to Singapore, she wasn't even good enough to play for her Guangdong Province badminton team.
Interestingly, she was spotted and encouraged to cross over by Fatimah Kumin Lim - a Singapore-born player whom FTS critics claimed is being disadvantaged by the scheme.
Singapore is not the only country to welcome foreign talent. The United States, for example, actively attracts the best brains for its Silicon Valley.
In sports, almost all table tennis competing nations have China-born paddlers, including established countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
These three countries took in players who had already made it to the top-10 world rankings.
Remember heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis. He was of Jamaican ancestry, became a Canadian and then English.
And cast your minds back to Los Angeles 1984. Zola Budd of South Africa was ineligble for the Games because of the world-wide protest against apartheid.
But her grandfather was British, so she got a British passport and ran for her grandfather's country.
She finished seventh in the 3,000m, having accidentally tripped Mary Decker-Slaney along the way.
Denmark has an 800m runner Wilson Kipketer. But a Viking he is not, having been born in Kenya.
Other movements included Nigerian hurdler Gloria Alozie to Spain and Eunice Barber from Sierra Leone to France.
And in tennis, Greg Rusedski went from Canada to Britain.
It can be funny at times. By virtue of being the Olympic host, Greece qualifies to play in the baseball final (which, ironically, superpower US won't be). Problem is, they don't have enough quality players.
So what they are doing is to seek out the Greek diaspora and hunt for players to form a decent side.
In non-Olympic disciplines, ace batsman Graeme Hick moved from Zimbabwe to England while his former compatriot, golfer Mark McNulty, is now an Irishman.
Why do sportsmen want to uplift themselves?
Those who came to Singapore share the same basic push and pull factors.
If they had remained at home, chances are they would not be called up for national training.
And even if they do, what are the prospects of them being among the top three at home to qualify for major overseas competitions, such as the Olympics?
Take Yanmei's former junior training partner in the Guangdong team. Xie Xingfang is ranked fourth in China and sixth in the world.
Unfortunately, Olympic rules limit each country to only three representatives per event. So Xie is staying at home while world No 31 Yanmei will be flying to Athens.
On the other hand, by staying in China, Xie gets to train with world-class opponents every day. Naturally, her rate of progress has been faster than Yanmei.
Early last month, 26-year-old American Malachi Davis was given British citizenship and soon after, a place in the British Olympic team to run in the 400m and 4x400m relay.
He told BBC Five Live: 'I qualified for both the British and US trials and was just looking at opportunities to possibly run for another country and achieve my ultimate goal - the Olympics.'
The International Olympic Committee and other world bodies approve such transfers. What they won't tolerate is flying the flag of convenience for pecuniary reasons.
Early this year, Fifa stopped Qatar from buying Brazilian players - Ailton of German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen and two brothers Dede and Leandro playing for Borussia Dortmund - to help them qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Ailton was reportedly offered one million euros (S$2.1 million).
If this trend is not checked, poor countries would be deprived of their talents. For how many athletes can say no to US$1 million?
That was what Stephen Cherono, ex-Kenya, was reportedly paid for winning the 3,000m steeplechase for Qatar.
Suffice it to say that in Singapore's first independent government in 1965, not a few of the Cabinet Ministers were from then Malaya (now Malaysia) and it was they who made sacrifices and contributions to set the foundations of modern Singapore. Even in today's Cabinet, the acting Minister for Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan is Malaysia-born.
AUG 1, 2004
Not Singapore-born, so what?
Time to embrace foreign talents into Singapore's fold and end all dissent
By Tay Cheng Khoon
LET the debate end now, even before the Games begins. Whatever the outcome, let us remember and accept that all 16 athletes going to the Athens Olympics will be competing under the Singapore flag, for Singapore.
It is sad, isn't it, that The Sunday Times should have to revisit the Foreign Talent Scheme on the eve of the world's biggest sporting spectacle.
Surely there are more important issues - like security headaches and drug cheats, like Thorpe v Phelps - to be discussed.
Why then are we engaging the vocal minority in this debate on the FTS? To bring closure to the topic.
However, as Singapore Badminton Association president Lim Swee Say noted at the Singapore Sports Council's SportsWeb: 'I am not sure if we will ever be able to achieve complete acceptance of the FTS.'
Back in the pre-war days, when teams played with five forwards, Chia Boon Leong was an exceptional inside-forward (a position now long gone).
More interestingly, together with the late Chua Boon Lay and Chu Chee Seng, he was a pioneer of the FTS.
That's how old the scheme is, though, where once Singapore was the exporter of talent, today it is a major importer.
The trio went to the Olympics, not as representatives of British-ruled Singapore but of China. Chua was at the Berlin Games in 1936 while the others were in London in 1948.
Why China? Explained Chia, nicknamed Twinkle Toes and who will be 80 on Jan 1: 'Back then, China considered all Chinese as citizens, irrespective of which part of the world they are at.
'Singapore was then part of the British Empire but when China invited me to go for trials in Hong Kong, I accepted. There were players from Shanghai, the then-Malaya, Indonesia.
'I was selected and played against Turkey, losing 0-4. Because no reserves were allowed then, it was quite competitive making the starting 11.'
No one made a big deal about their flying a different flag, neither was there any noise made when China-born Tan Howe Liang captured Singapore's only Olympic medal at Rome 1960.
In fact, he became a national hero for his weightlifting silver.
So why can't a vocal minority of Singaporeans share the glory of Singapore's successes, like at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, just because some of the athletes do not have the Made in Singapore chop?
What would they say if the Singapore health services become the best in the world one day? No glory lah, since acting Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan is Malaysia-born?
Singapore sports associations do not, as a rule, steal established stars from overseas.
Ronald Susilo, for example, crossed over from Indonesia to study at Anglo-Chinese School.
Like him, fellow-shuttler Li Li and table tennis player Li Jiawei came when they were in the teens - nonentities then in their own countries.
As Jiang Yanmei admitted, before coming to Singapore, she wasn't even good enough to play for her Guangdong Province badminton team.
Interestingly, she was spotted and encouraged to cross over by Fatimah Kumin Lim - a Singapore-born player whom FTS critics claimed is being disadvantaged by the scheme.
Singapore is not the only country to welcome foreign talent. The United States, for example, actively attracts the best brains for its Silicon Valley.
In sports, almost all table tennis competing nations have China-born paddlers, including established countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
These three countries took in players who had already made it to the top-10 world rankings.
Remember heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis. He was of Jamaican ancestry, became a Canadian and then English.
And cast your minds back to Los Angeles 1984. Zola Budd of South Africa was ineligble for the Games because of the world-wide protest against apartheid.
But her grandfather was British, so she got a British passport and ran for her grandfather's country.
She finished seventh in the 3,000m, having accidentally tripped Mary Decker-Slaney along the way.
Denmark has an 800m runner Wilson Kipketer. But a Viking he is not, having been born in Kenya.
Other movements included Nigerian hurdler Gloria Alozie to Spain and Eunice Barber from Sierra Leone to France.
And in tennis, Greg Rusedski went from Canada to Britain.
It can be funny at times. By virtue of being the Olympic host, Greece qualifies to play in the baseball final (which, ironically, superpower US won't be). Problem is, they don't have enough quality players.
So what they are doing is to seek out the Greek diaspora and hunt for players to form a decent side.
In non-Olympic disciplines, ace batsman Graeme Hick moved from Zimbabwe to England while his former compatriot, golfer Mark McNulty, is now an Irishman.
Why do sportsmen want to uplift themselves?
Those who came to Singapore share the same basic push and pull factors.
If they had remained at home, chances are they would not be called up for national training.
And even if they do, what are the prospects of them being among the top three at home to qualify for major overseas competitions, such as the Olympics?
Take Yanmei's former junior training partner in the Guangdong team. Xie Xingfang is ranked fourth in China and sixth in the world.
Unfortunately, Olympic rules limit each country to only three representatives per event. So Xie is staying at home while world No 31 Yanmei will be flying to Athens.
On the other hand, by staying in China, Xie gets to train with world-class opponents every day. Naturally, her rate of progress has been faster than Yanmei.
Early last month, 26-year-old American Malachi Davis was given British citizenship and soon after, a place in the British Olympic team to run in the 400m and 4x400m relay.
He told BBC Five Live: 'I qualified for both the British and US trials and was just looking at opportunities to possibly run for another country and achieve my ultimate goal - the Olympics.'
The International Olympic Committee and other world bodies approve such transfers. What they won't tolerate is flying the flag of convenience for pecuniary reasons.
Early this year, Fifa stopped Qatar from buying Brazilian players - Ailton of German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen and two brothers Dede and Leandro playing for Borussia Dortmund - to help them qualify for the 2006 World Cup.
Ailton was reportedly offered one million euros (S$2.1 million).
If this trend is not checked, poor countries would be deprived of their talents. For how many athletes can say no to US$1 million?
That was what Stephen Cherono, ex-Kenya, was reportedly paid for winning the 3,000m steeplechase for Qatar.