17th November 2008To tell you the truth, i was looking forward towards this event which will be organised in Penang Esplanade. Although i'm not a big fan of tennis events but to know these great stars like Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg coming to the place near mine is something wonderful and special and i bet everyone sure gear up for the event as well, if not me.
Well, sad to say, the event has to be cancelled at the 11th hour sure dash many peoples' hope to watch the great stars in action live in front of them. I would say its a waste not to have them here just for some avoidable technical errors by the organiser. I'm actually kinda dissapointed on how the event was planned and i believe, this issue of cancelling the event could really be avoided. So, now the much-touted event, Kings Of Tennis has been cancelled, so what to do next?
For starters, we should look into what had happen that make this cancellation even possible. An enquiry has been started into this issue and i doubt that would bring any positive output which we would need to know. Fingers will surely be pointed to a scapegoat and what mesmerised me enough was that, even before the enquiry has been started, the Gerakan guy start to politicalise the issue. The statement below shows how it was presented:
"Gerakan vice-president Huan Cheng Guan said it was unbecoming for the state government not to act according to standard procedures when giving approvals for certain applications.
For example, how were the contractors allowed to construct the stands when the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) did not even give the green light?
Clearly, the state government is cakap tak serupa bikin (They say one thing and do another). At one point, they were emphasising on CAT (Competency, Accountability and Transparency) principles. But now, they are providing a leeway for investors and organisers by saying the approval was given out of good faith.”
Meanwhile, Penang Gerakan Youth chief Oh Tong Keong handed over a memorandum containing 12 questions concerning the Kings of Tennis event and Pesta Asean Culture Centre to Ng Wei Aik, the political secretary of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, at the state assembly building yesterday."
(Taken from The Start Article, dated 15th Nov 2008)
Seems that these people just wan to "cari pasal" and not looking at the clearer picture of the issue. Although i could not disagree that the state government should put more interest in this event, but we can't blame them entirely for this blunder as the organiser should do better on their part somehow. But to have this Penang State Opposition to throw this kind of accuse is something not right at all but then again, that is what opposition does anyway, their full time job to say the least, where accusing something without thinking at all.
One thing for sure, accusing the state government of not following standard procedures when giving out approvals for certain applications is something not justifiable at all. If the government to follow the rule strictly, then the event would not be able to start off in time at all. Event with the state goverment leniency on the rules and regulations, the event oraganisers barely make it on time if not for the last minute reminder by certain quaters but then again, if the government were to be very strict on this matter in the first place, then the opposition will surely say that the state government is not keen in helping out with the state tourism and all....... so which one suppose to be the main issue here.
What they suppose to do is to question the event organiser on why they fail this simple task of organising one simple international activity where this is not the 1st time being done so in this country. The organiser should take full responsibility on this matter and the state government should take more steps in order to avoid this kinda of shamful event from happening again.
I, for sure, won't say that the leniency showed by the state govenment on this matter is something of a bad thing, but they should instead take more steps and measures in showing some interest on this event in the 1st place.
I really do hope that the state government has learn their lesson this time and for the opposition, please come out with something solid when trying to find a scape goat on any event related to the state. If you keep saying out something without thinking, you are going to make yourself look like fools.
No comments:
Post a Comment