S'pore's table tennis team manager told to leave ( Sun, Aug 24, 2008The Straits Times)
Fate of head coach hangs in balance.
In a shock announcement, Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah told The Sunday Times yesterday that the services of team manager Antony Lee are not needed anymore.
Some view as not only too rash but also harsh, is sure to put a dampener on the team's scheduled celebrations when they arrive back in Singapore tomorrow.
Ms Lee, who took over as STTA president, her first foray into sports, said: 'I have a new team and will have a new CEO and technical director. It is best that the manager is chosen by them. Antony is welcome to apply for the position when we ask for applications.' But a clearly upset Mr Lee, 39, did not take kindly to the news.
Dear Friends,
Another STTA president- another controversy!
I have written the following to Forum page editors
To the editor:
Dear Editor,
Many in Singapore are shocked at this seemingly rash act by the new Singapore Table Tennis Association president Lee Bee Wah.
Ms Lee, who according to the mainstream media, was just appointed last month in “her first foray into sports” is also a PAP MP.
Singapore just won second Olympic medal in 48 years
Singapore has just won its long overdue second Olympics medal after a hiatus of 48 years. This medal was the culmination of calculated government and STTA policies as well as the hard work of players and support staff, which included team manager Antony Lee and head coach Liu Guodong.
All of Singapore was looking forward to welcoming back these heroes and heroines.
Is STTA president’s action justified?
Notwithstanding the “Gao Ning incident” where no coach was present at Gao Ning’s match, is Ms Lee’s action justified?
We wait with bated breath to hear for ourselves why such drastic action has to be taken that could not even wait for a proper inquiry in Singapore. The alleged infraction must have been extremely grave to warrant immediate dismissal in Beijing!
Project 0812 chairman Ng Ser Miang is not the only person puzzled- the whole of Singapore is too!
Dr.Huang Shoou Chyuan
26 comments:
Hi SC,
Agree that action is puzzling and timing reflects badly on the person who announced it. Even if infraction is grave, it is possible to save face for all people involved and problems do not have to be hung out in public like dirty linen. Makes the country lose face.
B
it shows the low EQ she has. btw, she is also a member of AMK GRC. 1st we have Wee Siew Kim, then Inderjit Singh, now Lee Bee Wah! what a fantastic group LHL has!
Hi All,
And to all Singaporeans! This Bee Wah (really behaves more like a highly incompetent PAP MP) probably thinks she is the "Empress Dowager"! Her handling of the entire issue is so High-handed... I am sure if the General Election is round the corner, she will loose alot of votes! She only exhibited a poor charactertistics of low EQ and certainly does not deserve to represent Singapore as a PAP MP! What a disgrace!!!
She is like a hawker centre aunty - even speak like one!!!
No EQ - very undiplomatic. Surprised at this type of candidate from PAP !!!
Seems like the fate of Coach Liu lingers too. It is clear that Coach Liu has meet his KPI for the Table Tennis Team. Two wrongs don't make one right. If the newly crowned beauracrat, Ms Lee has her way, I fear that Singapore may have to wait for another 48 years for another Olympic medal!
Dr. Huang,
Share your sentiment. Question to Lee Bee Wah:
1) Any official from STTA at the venue to support the player?
2)Were you at Beijing at that time?
3) If you there, why you not at the stadium to support the player? Why you not in Beijing to make the round and make sure all functioning well? You better let everyone know what you doing in Beijing.
4) As a leader, you should lead by example and take the blame and not letting your team take the reap. That a right thing to do and a true leader.
5) If you need to appotion blame, then the whole team need to be sack, including yourself for being an incompetence leader.
Edward Tan
While I am surprised at the sudden action, I am not surprised at the manner at which things are being done by our Division One leadership.
Can we call them the "own goal" team? hahah
Wow..things are getting quite frightening in Singapore. First, we hear that there are people outside 'conspiracies to do us in,' then, we have a malaysian-born LBW who literally DID US IN!, by bringing shame to the whole of our nation (hers or not har?!) by blabbing her mouth and showing us to be zero-courtesy and zero-tolerance. How to live here like that? No wonder our local-born are migrating amass. Thanks again...to our foreign-import MP....
The STTA is already in a mess. The china coaches are building personal fiefdoms. There are also discord between the china players and coaches. Needless to say youth development and local born players are totally ignored. Ms Lee needs to act before these foreign imports climb all over her head. The timing sucks but it is a great opportunity to get rid of those who think they are too big for their shoes.
We have China born players.
China born coaches
Malyasia born president
Singapore born team manager.
Who to support?
If decision to let them go was made 'before the olympics' then this again has no crdibilty cos they were not even given a chance to proof their worth at the olympics - and that is what the PAP / AMK GRC empress indicated.
Sad.
The other malaysia born also indicated means testing for hospital starting soon, but most will not feel the pinch - like hoe ERP first started! ;)
She just announced a funeral or divorce in a wedding celebration. How idiotic is the timing. Without letting Anthony explain the reason behind the 'Coach' incident she took this untimely action, thus the action can be considered unlawful because natural justice was not observed. She has brought distress to us during this joyous occassion and disgrace to our nation when this news is reported to the world confirming our intolerant and uncompassionate society which is unable to 'manage failure' as someone recently said. I have many things to say but going on would make me puke. She has just committed political suicide.
2 new Delphi forums are emerging since the old Sammyboy forum is gone from Delphi:
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages/
http://forums.delphiforums.com/otak69/messages/
Feel free to come participate...
THE GOVERNMENT HAD SPENT SO MUCH TIME, MONEY AND EFFORT TRAINING MANY OTHERS SPORTMEN PARTICIPATING THE OLYMPIC,THAT'S THE ONE AND ONLY MEDAL WE HAD ACHIVED IN LONG 48 YEARS.
I THINK AS A TOP LEADER WHO WAS JUST APPOINTED A MONTH AGO WAS NOT ABLE TO SPEAK AND HANDLE THE SITUATION WELL AND CAUSES MORAL PROBLEMS IN THE SUCCESSFUL TEAM and BLAME OTHERS. eg THE PRESS.( whereas the team had trained for years.)
I VERY DOUBTFUL WE ABLE TO WIN THE MEDAL IN THE NEXT OLYMPIC OR OTHER COMPETITIONS.
WE SHOULD REPLACE HER WITH BETTER PERSON INSTEAD IN ORDER TO BRING THE BEST TEAM TOGETHER for the future medal.
LBW can vent her anger behind closed doors instead of chastising the officials in public. It does not speak well of her as an educated person, least of all, a lady.
I still do not support the govt importing of forgin talent. Now Li Chia Wei is going back to China to study. If she decides to stay there what does it mean to us Singaporeans? A fleeting pride and then, absolute frustration and anger at the government again.
all i can say is LBW has handle the situation at wrong timing..
i feel that the manager and the coach shd bear some of the responsiblity. how can they just focus solely on the female player but neglected the male player. both represent SIN. why treat them differently? just becos the female player has better chance of scoring, so they dont think much of male player???
I don't know what prompted her to speak like a 'siao cha bor' publicly on the Gao Ning incident. I always thought that our govt officials are taught to speak with EQ and proper political language in public speaking. Maybe she was feeling real emotional about the issue but if you are a commoner on the streets, sure go ahead and rant all you want. Cos media might censor and not air it on TV anyway. But when you are somebody and being paid an MP's salary (S$ million), the public certainly expect you to have a certain class and tact in addressing issues in public. It's time to go back to school for lessons on public speaking, LBW.
Firstly i would like to point out that she was MP due to the fact that she was in a GRC.
It shows the weakness of the GRC system.
Even if some of the members of the GRC are not as capable they are also voted in......
Secondly, Tact is often lacking in the hands of scholars and intellectuals.....
In my job I have the opportunity to meet with many corporate executives, many of them very senior C-level exectuives. In my personal time I have many friends from the heartland. It is the first time that across such a wide spectrum of society ONE VOICE emerged:
“Lee Bee Wah’s conduct and handling of this incident is totally unacceptable, and as a person, not befitting of a leader”
Unlike TT Durai of NKF saga, there were camps, especially from the corporate world, who thought he did not personally do the wrong thing.
In LBW’s case, it is unanimous.
Food for thought, Mr Government.
In the effort to protect LBW’s image, the government did the wrong thing by trying to portray her in a positive light through many nedia exposure, from victory celebration pubicity with her appearing alogside the lady TT players and chat shows on TV. This unfortunately backfires as the government underestimated the deep negative public feelings towards her. The effort aggravated further her standing amongst all singaporeans.
Hate to say but this saga has reached a point of no return… She has to go
Dear All,
Please do not blame MP Lee Bee Hua. She is a Politician. She did good things for her consituency and scored political points.
Who put her in STTA? Did the person or authority carefully select capable person to be lead STTA ? I want to bring up this point as a lesson be be learnt as some of the sport associations may by mismanaged by Politicians.
Please do not put politician in Sport Associations.
I am sure she learnt something from this saga and hopefully becomes a better person.
Let's forgive and forget
Hi all,
Thank you for your comments and your response.
All of us have played our parts as active citizens.
LBW's public apology is the result of overwhelming outrage expressed by each one of us in blogosphere and MSM.
Let us continue to contribute constructively to Singapore.
I will accept LBW's apology and will move on from this issue. I wish STTA well.
Best wishes
Dr.Huang
I cannot don't agree with tigerlee comments, “Lee Bee Wah’s conduct and handling of this incident is totally unacceptable, and as a person, not befitting of a leader”
I believe she thought she was very clever, ..., very "big" and her head swelled, floated and being carried away. Far away and she had forgotten that she also indirectly represented Singapore as a citizen and worse a Singapore leader.
I felt she bring tremendous disGRACE to Singapore and
Singaporeans.
She protray hypocracy in the media, like a smiling tigress trying to pose alongside our victoria Table Tennis players. As many agreed that were total articial acts on her. Her public display at Beijing aggravated further her standing amongst many singaporeans.
This saga has reached a point of no return ... She has to go (unfit to lead and preside).
Life in Spore is so safe... Mas Selamet escape so many months, also no figurehead answered for it. Except some small fry got sacked. Mrs Peanut talk so much before Mr Durian got jailed, also like that. Now another MP talk so much and come up with some lame public apology, life will still go on... everyone still draw big salary, c'est la vie en singapour. Maybe we need to wait for Mas Selamet to come back with JI troops and attack us then somebody will really need to answer for it. In the meantime, let's just ocntinue paying millions to MPs, who don't take up responsibility when things go wrong. Afterall, all they have to do is do some lame and insincere apology to the public and all the issue is considered "resolved".
Good Job! :)
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