| By Jeremy Au Yong | ||
 |  | Mr Liu headed to China earlier this month after five days of fruitless talks. -- ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN |
The Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister indicated that the Singapore Mediation Centre could play a role if need be, and reiterated his hope for a mediated outcome rather than a 'slug fest where only one person walks out of the ring'.
He was responding in Parliament to Mr Seah Kian Peng (Marine Parade GRC) who asked for his comments on the table tennis spat.
The dispute started three weeks ago when the STTA refused to nominate former national head coach Liu Guodong for the Singapore Sports Awards - an award many believed Mr Liu was a shoo-in to win. But the STTA said he was not worthy of the accolade.
Angered by what he saw as a slight on his character and integrity, Mr Liu demanded an explanation and flew here from his base in China to discuss the matter. But the matter remains unresolved and Mr Liu has not ruled out legal action.
Dr Balakrishnan ruled out intervention by his ministry: 'Whilst we provide funding to the national sports associations, I think we have, as a matter of discipline, learnt not to micro-manage and not to get involved with the details of operations and in fact even with the details of selection...
'These are decisions best made on the ground by officials, coaches and players and by the people who constitute the sports fraternity for each relevant sport. So I'm very hesitant to say we should go in and second-guess or countermand decisions.'
The primary concern of the ministry and the Singapore Sports Council was in ensuring good governance in the associations.
Dr Balakrishnan, who likened the spat to a disputed line-call in tennis, said it was important not to become 'so distracted or so upset by (it) that you end up losing the match'.
But he told Mr Seah there was a silver lining: 'The fact that people can be bothered, that people are worked up, shows that people are paying interest and care. That reflects the fact that the profile of sport has been raised...It would be much worse if nobody even cared about this award and it didn't even become an issue.'
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