Common objective - "An attempt to discredit for a passive meeting"

What similarities do these people have:

• Secretary.
• Chairman Coaching Committee.
• National Coach.
• National Team Manager for a international tournament at Ipoh.
• President of a Players Association.
• Former Sports Writer, who prematurely resigned from his previous job.

The thing that is not difficult to guess is that they have connections to MHF and seem to be closely linked to a key senior official in the organisation. If that is all then it does not give rise to any issues except that these people have carried out certain activities which tantamount as attempts to discredit the signature campaign of the former hockey internationals.

All of them have called the younger of the generations of former hockey internationals to either not to sign in support of the "open letter" or if they have signed it to withdraw their signatures. This activity is still ongoing despite their failure to get 30 of the former internationals who participated in the signature campaign for a press conference that was called by the President of the so called Players Association.

For statistic purposes only 2 turned up. One of them indicated he signed without knowing why he did it, while the other mumbled something that was not audible. Another person did turn up but decided not to join them as he was surprise with the poor turnout despite being told of something otherwise.

Even of late, calls have been made to places of work to instill fear so as the former internationals would withdraw their signatures. Names have been "dropped" so as people become worried and decide to pull out in order to avoid trouble. Unfortunately, all that these people are doing is only going to strengthen the former internationals' resolute to ensure that the declining standards of hockey is "checked" and Malaysia can again become a great hockey nation. This is something that these personalities are unable to comprehend and therefore what they are doing is only going to further accelerate the decline of Malaysian hockey.

Why are they carrying out such activities? The obvious answer is that they want to discredit the work done on the signature campaign. They want to make it look that certain cross-section of the former internationals did not know what they were signing and another section on 2nd thoughts want to withdraw their signature. Their whole idea was to destroy the creditability of the "open letter" and the former internationals. The strangest aspect is they are of the impression that the former internationals do not possess any intellect capacity. This is the sort of self destruction that they have brought to Malaysian hockey.

There is also the hidden agenda too. MHF Council is to meet in mid-August and these personalities wanted the"open letter" to be discredited prior to that meeting. They are very concerned as the "open letter had been delivered to the MHF Affiliates and therefore they are of the opinion the Council Meeting may be unusually vocal. If its creditability can be destroyed then the Council members cannot use the letter as basis of their arguments.

The hidden agenda gets even deeper. There is a feeling that with the letter many issues may be questioned including those matters that are being investigated by the Police. Notwithstanding the Police investigation, there are strong opinions that an in-house investigation should have also been done on the allegations. Why this was not done is something the MHF Management Committee can only answer.

As i watch what is happening, i find it difficult to appreciate why people in such positions would want to undertake activities that is only going to destroy the game which they are suppose to be custodians. Finally who loses? Malaysian hockey.