KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 ― The year saw a change in the hierarchy of sports leadership as Khairy Jamaluddin took over the reins of the Youth and Sports Ministry in May.

Khairy, or KJ, as he is widely known, was expected to bring in wholesome changes to the manner in which sports is administrated in the country, with through his ministry or government agencies such as the National Sports Council (NSC), National Sports Institute (NSI), Malaysia Stadium Corporation (MSC)and the Sports Commissioner's Office.

But the combative minister, whose passion towards Manchester United is second to none when compared with other Devils fans, soon realised he was facing a mob culture, so embedded in our system that he probably wished he never was given the portfolio.

For better or worse, he is the sports minister and he will no doubt be faced with more sleepless nights in the year to come as Malaysia is to participate in major multi-sports events like the Commonwealth and Asian Games. Not forgetting, there is the AFF Cup for football, World Cup for hockey and the Thomas and Uber Cups of badminton.

Setting goals creates a path for athletes to follow and despite what the experts whisper into the ears of Khairy, he must realise this is an effective motivational technique that boosts skill learning as well as performance in competition.

Thus, targets for the multi sports events must be made public now and not wait for the eleventh hour. It will allow athletes to be more committed to training when goals are clearly established and they know unquestionably when they have achieved them.

The confrontational approach adopted by the minister saw him being attacked from many quarters, on issues with the Football Association of Malaysia, the sepak takraw malady and right till his decision to provide handicap athletes with the similar reward scheme as able-bodied athletes.

Next, we look at the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) where internal bickering amongst office bearers have reared their ugly head of late.

From being a virtually dormant organisation that only comes to life when multi sports events are held, OCM today is like a snake pit, as venom is unleashed by some who yearn to do a coup with the target being long serving honorary secretary Datuk  Sieh Kok Chi.

For some feel that Kok Chi has overstayed his welcome or rather his methods, ideology or even administration is outdated. But one man does not run OCM hence whatever decisions are made are collective decisions, be it right or wrong.

OCM is the umbrella body for sports but it makes decisions that are contrary to the fundamentals of sport — which is fair play.

How did they do their selection of chef de missions for multi-sports events? On merit or is it done to satisfy the politics within OCM, a body that is supposed to hold up the sanity of sports.

The National Sports Council stands accused of having within its ranks overzealous officials that usurp the powers of the various national sports associations.

In the past, the various director-generals of NSC had an open-ended policy in place as they thrived to improve sports and at the same time placed it as a priority in promoting national unity amongst various races in the country.

But that was changed over the years and now sports is no longer seen as a unification agenda. What NSC must realise is their role is to assist in the promotion and development of elite sports, not virtually take over the role of the associations.

Will the NSC come clean and reveal just how many of its officials were at the recent SEA Games as observers? From information gathered, most were merely passengers and did not help in disseminating information to the Malaysian media who tried to report as objectively as they could.

The minister has come out and said that a post mortem of the SEA Games is needed but has anyone told Khairy to go read the post mortem of the 2004 Athens Olympics that made it to the Cabinet.

The former NSC DG Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad was an open book when the post mortem in 2004 was conducted, transparent and never tried to hide behind his desk.

Could we expect the same if a transparent post mortem is to be conducted this time around?