I guess in ten years to come Singapore will become one of the the power houses of badminton. It is only a matter of time. Many young talented players including coaches from Indonesia are (perhaps have been) beginiing to look at SIngapore to develop their badminton career. Indonesia will only serve as a training camp and Singapore will be the place where they will develop their career in the world stage
tradision to be powerhouse in any sport, you need strong root foundation where lot of public playing that sport. importing talent would only do you temporary good. usually those imported talent are unable to sustain their form for long.
Wow, Indra, thank you for giving some credit to Singapore badminton. Yes, we still have a long way to go, but thanks to our hardworking and committed officials at the SBA, we have started on that difficult road to success some years ago. I always consider leadership as very important. You need good and committed people not only at the top but also in the middle to give the necessary support to make things happen. Our SBA leadership has already mapped out a detailed plan to produce good players to represent the country. They worked hard to get the sponsors and also looked into the welfare of the professionals not only for now but also after they have retired. (So I'm actually very sad to learn that the Philippines could not make much headway because they lacked the funds for carrying out their plans. ) It is no secret that our very stable government has supported badminton as one of the sports that Singaporeans can have a chance to be good at and to win honours for the country. Three years ago, as I have posted in a separate thread, the government took the bold step to start the first Sports School (SS) here for sports talented children aged 12-15 who have completed their primary schooling. And badminton, apart from table-tennis and other sports, was one of the chosen sports inevitably and you are right, the head coach is Indonesian and not too long ago a younger Indonesian male was engaged to train and spar with some of the more senior players in the school. Next year the first batch of students will graduate from the SS and will go on to study in higher institutions like the polytechnics or univerisites, either locally or overseas with which the SS has an arrangement to allow these talents to continue with their training and become champions. We hope to build up a pool of more local talents to complement those that we have talent-scouted from China and Indonesia. Most of our local talents will come from our SS, although some will still come from the normal schools. Our badminton plan is already in action. Yes, I think in 10 years we will be able to show some repectable results. A strong leadership who not only device realistic blueprints and ensure that they are properly implemented but who are also able to gain the support of the commercial houses as sponsors. And to have full government support are necessary ingredients to make things happen in our badminton scene!
marcus wijanu, the former 4th player in indoneisa thomas cup team, will play for singapore... hmmmm sinagapore has picked up some player from 'PBSI's recycle bin' they can get marcus wijanu
Hope that he can be better than Ronald Susilo. Spore needs more players both locally and internationally.
That's good news.Singapore joining China,Indonesia Denmark,Malaysia,Thailand,Japan,England and India as strong badminton nations.Hopefully the USA follow suit.Germany,sweden,france and Holland should also be more active to put a better fight against Asian nations.If these nations do not have homegrown talents,they should follow the way of Singapore.The more the merrier.
However, SIngapore has better comparative advantages: proximity to Indonesia and China, good political and economic stability of the country, internal motivation from the SBA to be one of the major Badminton power house
Indra, thank you for your interest. For how long have you been studying Singapore? But please bear in mind that Singapore is very, very small in size compared to our neighbours. We are too insignificant when compared to China and India as far as population goes. We're only a tiny red dot and could not be seen in many world maps! :crying: So there is a limit to what we can achieve in all fields.
You don't know how lucky you are! If only Indonesia could sell us a few nearby islands, then we Singaporeans will not feel so stressful with a limited space to move around! Only joking! Jangan marah, kawan! Do you know that not too long ago, Christmas Island belonged to Singapore but the then government sold it to Australia! :crying:
saya tidak marah kawan , the development in singapore is 'going up', 'not going wide' ( sorry if this sentence is wrong or misunderstanding), singapore is buiding many high appartements to solve the land problem, is there a birth control policy in singapore ?
It can be called PBSI's recycle bin or it could also be PBSI's blind spot. Look at what happened to all the Wang Chen, Yao Jie, Pi Hong Yan, etc. Sometimes, myopic, egoistic or corrupted officials can easily miss some good talent and overlook them. Afterall, PBSI almost lost Taufik to a neighbouring country. Anyway, it is very rude and disrespectful to call it the "recycle bin" because it is an insult to the players who are out to prove themselves with an opportunity. Look into the mirror and you will definitely see someone who has been or will be in some "recycle bins" somewhere.
You will need to be careful with the use of the "limit" word. Limited in quantity but definitely not limited in quality. We definitely cannot produce outstanding talents in abundance in all fields but there is always a very likely possibility of certain outstanding individuals that are world beaters in their field showing their head among the small crowd. Afterall, the environment in Singapore is definitely good enough for such occassional talents to develop although it might not be suitable for a whole big group to do so. Due to natural limitations, I am contented with the occassional local talent and the talented foreigners who make Singapore home. They are both good.
Yes you're right, because of lack of space, we have to build upwards and now there are taller apartments of around 50 storeys (like Hong Kong). Our population density is one of the highest in the world. We need precious land for economic activities like manufacturing plants, oil and chemical plants, warehouses, infrastructures like roads, airport, seaport, reservoirs, etc. Because Indonesia has land and your costs are lower, some of our manufacturing plants have been relocated especially to Batam. Good for both countries. Your people can work in these industries, earn an income and Singapore can take more orders or do something else. But with more land and space, I believe Singapore can do more and our neighbours can also benefit if they are willing to work with us. When Singapore was newly independent in 1965, and even before that in 1959 when we obtained self-government from the British, Singapore was quite poor. The external aid that we received was inadequate and insufficient and the government had to work very hard to earn foreign income and to provide jobs for its citizens. We managed to do so by starting many factories in Jurong, at the western side of the Island. The government also realized that a big family will burden the people so it encouraged smaller families and promote birth control for especially poor families. There used to be a slogan like "Two (children) is enough". Unfortunately this policy was so effective that today Singapore is one of countries in the world with the lowest birth rate. At the rate Singapore is going, families will not be able to replace themselves. There will be a higher percentage of senior citizens as years go by. There will come a time when not enough young adults will be available to support the elderly! So now, the government is doing the reverse. It has to bring out the carrot to entice young couples to have more babies, benefits like giving out cash bonuses, generous tax rebates and relieves to the working mother and for engaging a maid, extended maternity leave, child care facilities, etc. Now the slogan is "If you can afford it, have more children (naturally more than two, the more the merrier!)" It seems that starting last year, our birth rate has gone up slightly! So it is no use if you are successful economically and have nothing much to do during weekends, like having more places to go because Singapore is too small. Therefore being able to play badminton is a good past time! Or a boat trip to nearby Malaysia, Batam or Bintang for a round of golf!
