Irresponsible for Dr Vivian Balakrishnan to distance himself from the STTA saga
Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said the controversy between the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) and its former head coach is “unfortunate” and he hopes the issue will be resolved amicably.
Amid calls for the government to step in, the Sports Minister said neither his ministry nor the Singapore Sports Council will get involved in the “micro-managing” of awards. This, he said, was best left to the sporting fraternity.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has missed the point altogether. The crux of the entire issue does not lie with STTA not nominating Liu Guodong for the “Coach of the year” award, but in Lee Bee Wah’s blunt remarks insinuating that Liu lacked “professionalism and integrity” which sparked off the controversy in the first place.
Singaporeans are calling Dr Vivian to step in not to “micromanage the awards”, but to resolve the matter by asking Lee Bee Wah to either substantiate her allegations about Liu Guodong or retract her statements and apologize without any reservation.
As he has demonstrated last year by making Lee Bee Wah apologized publicly for her unwarranted outburst in Beijing, Dr Vivian has the power to intervene to put a stop to the protracted tussle which is dragging the entire sporting fraternity into disrepute.
Dr Vivian added that the SNOC and NSAs are governed by their respective constitutions, and the ministry and SSC are not involved in their routine operations or programmes.
If this is indeed so, who appointed Lee Bee Wah to take over from Choo Wei Kiang as STTA President 3 weeks before the team’s departure to Beijing just in time for her to bask in the limelight of the Beijing Olympics?
Was Lee Bee Wah ever voted into her position as STTA President? Since she clearly has no “mandate” to lead the organization, why can’t she be removed from her position and allow a more suitable candidate to take over?
Dr Vivian and his ministry oversees the development of sports in Singapore. STTA is not a private table tennis association. It is funded entirely by taxpayers’ monies. Surely Singaporeans should have a say in how the association is being run?
Of course we do not expect to meddle in the daily modus operandi of STTA, but in this instance, it is pretty clear that STTA has gone completely off tangent under the leadership (if it’s the correct word to use) of Lee Bee Wah.
Is this the proper behavior of a President to cast aspersions on the character of an ex-employer without substantiating her claims and then vanished into thin air when the accused came to seek her for clarifications in person?
Shouldn’t a leader take responsibility for her own words and defend herself instead of using STTA as a shield to protect herself from the legal liabilities?
Lee Bee Wah has betrayed the trust of Singaporeans and hurt our feelings again and again.
During the first ping pong controversy last year, there were already calls for her to step down as STTA President.
In less than a year’s time, she repeated the same mistake again. Her callousness, arrogance and ineptitude are simply too much for us to bear.
Being a national association funded by the public, STTA has to be accountable to the people of Singapore.
Unless STTA is owned by Lee Bee Wah, she has no right to continue clinging onto her position in the face of widespread anger and opposition to her leadership.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, please take note of the sentiments on the ground and take appropriate actions to reverse the damage already done to our image at home and abroad before it is too late. The ball is in your court right now.
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