Malaysia's medal-focused funding policy is making its people obese

Yahoo

6 hours ago

Last week, our esteemed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced a rather generous RM6 million allocation to develop a sepak takraw academy in Malaysia, primarily for elite athletes.
This is a sport where grown men and women flail about with their feet, trying to keep a woven rattan ball off the ground, all while looking like they're having a particularly violent epileptic fit. Fascinating, truly.
Now, don't get me wrong. I appreciate a good spectacle. But RM6 million of taxpayers' hard-earned money funnelled into a specialised academy for a handful of exceptionally bendy individuals? It had me choke on my lunch.
Have we not learned from the (lack of) return on investments related to the National Football Development Programme? Especially when you consider the rather alarming fact that the average Malaysian youth looks less like a finely tuned sepak takraw machine and more like my sofa?
You see, while the Malaysian government is busy dreaming of Olympic glory (and now funding a sport, mind you, that isn't even in the Olympics), the rest of the nation – particularly its youngsters – is getting progressively wider.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022 painted a grim picture: a staggering one in three Malaysian adolescents is overweight or obese. That's not mere statistics – that's a national disaster unfolding, one unhealthy snack at a time.
And it's only getting worse. Projections show that over half of Malaysia's children are at risk of being overweight or obese by 2035. We're not building a sporting nation; we're building a nation of future heart patients.
So, while we're all supposed to clap like seals for the next sepak takraw prodigy, I can't help but wonder: what about the millions of kids who can barely run to the bus stop? What about the ones whose idea of exercise is strengthening their thumbs by scrolling through TikTok?
Because apparently, promoting actual, widespread health isn't as glamorous as a gold medal, is it?
This is the fundamental flaw in our current sports funding policy. It's utterly obsessed with elite performance – with chasing shiny 'bling blings' to hang around the necks of a privileged few.
It is a top-down approach that ignores the very foundation of a healthy, active populace. It's like building the world's most magnificent skyscraper in the middle of a vast area occupied by squatters. Utterly mad.
Instead of pouring vast sums into hyper-specialised facilities that benefit a minuscule percentage of the population, perhaps – just perhaps – the government could consider a different tack. How about funding things that would benefit everyone?
You know, like public parks. Open spaces where families can run around without having to pay for entry. Or how about properly maintaining easily accessible public sepak takraw courts – the ones that aren't part of some grand, taxpayer-funded elite training ground, but are there for local kids to kick a ball about, to try out this peculiar sport for themselves, perhaps even discover a hidden talent without having to be 'elite' from day one?
It's called building from the grassroots – something our policymakers seem to have forgotten.
It is, after all, taxpayers' money. And it is only fair and rightful that our money – the money we begrudgingly hand over to the government each year – is funnelled towards public commodities that genuinely improve the lives of the many, not the gilded few.
Public parks, public courts, community sports programmes – these are not just amenities; they are investments in the nation's health, its future, and its collective waistline.
Because, let's be brutally honest – if we continue down this medal-focused path, the only thing our people will be winning is the race to the coronary ward.
The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of Twentytwo13.