Poser over name

UNION OR FEDERATION: Constitutional committee to look into the dilemma

Karim Ibrahim could challenge the legality of the elections.

UNION or Federation? That is the question officials of the Malaysian athletics governing body cannot seem to figure out.

They are called the Malaysian Athletics Union (MAU) or 'Kesatuan' in Bahasa Malaysia and Federation in English in their own constitution, a muddle which is symptomatic of the running of the body under the leadership of ex-president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim.

As the delegates voted on Sunday to defer the name dilemma to a constitutional committee, change was afoot elsewhere.

Few expected Shahidan to be unseated, as the shocked looks on the faces of his supporters and tears of his lawyer, indicated.

But the former Perlis Menteri Besar paid the price for his "support" of his scandal-tainted deputy Karim Ibrahim and his inability to steer a ship out of troubled waters.

In the early years after his election in 2006, Shahidan was content to remain a figurehead and leave the day-to-day running of the body to Karim.

From 2007 to 2011, Malaysia's performance at the Sea Games declined at an alarming rate yet accountability was a dirty word kept away from the lexicon of MAU jargon.

Backroom dealings, and not results on the track and field, kept Shahidan and Karim in power, but faced with the prospect of being the laughing stock of a nation, the affiliates finally had some sense knocked into them on Sunday.

Again, this is largely due to crossovers from the Shahidan camp to the new president Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad, as borne out by the two-vote margin to the victor.

Shahidan, though he had good intentions, was never the right man to lead MAU and his indecisiveness, arguably led to the drug-scandals rocking the sport.

Karim, given too much latitude at MAU, was at the centre of a dope-test skipping affair by six national sprinters and was also fingered as the culprit by Yunus Lasaleh in the relay runner's positive test at the 2011 Sea Games.

An inquiry report has been released, and though the findings have yet to be made public, the affiliates deemed Karim guilty by way of the ballot box, handing victory to Datuk Wan Hisham Wan Salleh by 25 votes to 19.

The exits of Shahidan and Karim allow MAU to turn the page on a dark chapter of the governing body's history but the ride will be far from seamless from here.

Karim hinted he could return to muddy the waters by challenging the legality of the elections as his own Malacca AAA delegate unsuccessfully attempted to have the vote postponed during the annual general meeting.

Zainal had his own fair share of controversy during his previous tenure as vice-president 10 years ago, chiefly remembered for his notorious report which slammed coaches after failing to meet targets at the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games.

Terengganu AAA president Wan Hisham is a neophyte in athletic terms while three of the vice-presidents -- Datuk Mumtaz Jaffar, Datuk R. Annamalai and K. Yogasveran -- are part of the old-guard responsible for the failings of MAU.

It also remains to be seen how often the new vice-president Datuk Paiman Abdul Karim is willing to fly in from Kota Kinabalu to attend council meetings.

Read more: ATHLETICS: Poser over name - Other - New Straits Times