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Azalina Othman must start and establish a Malaysian Sepak Raga Academy in Bangkok and a Malaysian Basketball Academy in Beijing. These are two countries that have excelled in these sports, in which Malaysians have a greater propensity to excel in.

Forget about badminton, squash and bowling, sports which she is quoted to have said that we already excel in.

However, I wish to enlighten her that these are not serious sports, but 'social sports'. They are some of the least popular sports in the world. Do a Google search on the unpopular sports in the world and there is a whole list.

I am afraid the British sports academy will become a welfare department. Imagine, some young kids are discovered to have some talent in a sport and they are sent there, board and lodging paid for. On top of that, they are also given scholarships to study in the local primary or secondary schools and later on in college.

In the end, each of these 'potential' athlete would have spent RM2 to RM3 million without any guarantee that they will be able to qualify for the Olympics, let alone win a medal. And many Malaysian sports officials, too, will benefit directly from this academy. They will get to live and work in England and take along their families.

Therefore, I suspect the academy is being formed not only for the athletes, but also for the officials as I suspect some of them are bored of living in Malaysia.

The almost half a billion ringgit that has been allocated to be spent over 10 years is better off spent on building more hospitals and providing discounted medical services to the needy.

I'm sure Malaysia and all Malaysians can right now live without having anyone in our midst who has brought back an Olympic gold medal.

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