Ruthless Lee Bee Wah!

I had the misfortune of coming across a very unpleasant news in the newspapers today.

It was reported that the manager and the coach of Team Singapore Table Tennis had been sacked, days just before they were due to return to Singapore to celebrate their victory at winning the Olympic silver medal in Beijing.

This decision was revealed to be made by the President of Table Tennis Association, Lee Bee Wah, who had just been at the post for around a month.

This damn woman had blamed the defeat of Singapore's top paddler Gao Ning to a Croatian player on the coach as well as the manager. Just because the actual coach for Gao Ning, Chen Jian, had fallen sick, and there was no one else by his side during the match doesn't mean that the coach had to be dismissed in such a way.

At the very least, she should investigate the cause of the problem and then meted out punishment accordingly. However, no checks seemed to have been conducted before the public dismissal of the coach and manager. That is a very bad example for the rest of Singapore to learn from.

It shows that there is zero tolerance for mistakes committed in this society, which had prided itself as a modern city with open thinking concept.

I don't really know who this Lee Bee Wah is but judging from the news reports, she appears to be a very harsh woman and that reflects badly on the majority of women here. The table tennis team had not yet returned to Singapore and their homes when they were slapped with such depressing news. No matter what, they did helped Singapore to clinch a silver medal to do us proud. Isn't that enough to redeem them at the very least?

Is there a high standard being set for the sports arena in Singapore? If so, it should be reviewed immediately lest future young players are discouraged by such cruel standards. I doubt the sports stars of China are subjected to such torture and humiliation, in public no less.

In addition, it was obvious that the coach's and the manager's feelings weren't taken into consideration. There they were in Beijing, anticipating their return to Singapore to celebrate their team's win at the Olympics Games. Then all of a sudden, the earth came crashing down on them, bearing terrible tidings for them from home. No more celebrations. No more jobs. No more glory. Everything's gone. Oh how fickle-minded fate can turn out to be.

They are supposed to return home as heroes. Now they are returning home with disgrace. Is that their reward for bringing the silver medal to Singaporeans? Don't they deserve a properly conducted and thorough investigation for this? Don't they deserve an explanation for this?

If not, then the whole of Singapore deserve a thorough and proper explanation from Lee Bee Wah. Just because she's the MP for Ang Mo Kio doesn't mean that she can dismiss her responsibility with a "let's move on" statement in the press. I doubt that is the way Lee Hsien Loong would want his charge to behave.

Let's hope the tide will turn in this saga and for Singapore to advance forward on to great success, with a great team in tow.

Singapore won an Olympics Silver!!!!

Fresh from the largely predictable table tennis women team match, Singapore came off with a nicely earned Silver medal in the Beijing Olympics 2008.

The match was shown live on Starhub's Ch 605 and I managed to tuned in on time to catch the match between China and Singapore. Both mum and dad also stayed to watch the match although the dad went out of the house during the middle of the match.

First up was Singapore's Feng Tianwei against China's Wang Nan. Feng fought bravely in the first round but subsequently lost at the end of the round. Wang Nan is simply too good with her long shots and Feng had no defence against that.

Second up was Singapore's Li Jiawei against China's Zhang Yining. This match is a no-brainer as it's clear who would be the winner. Zhang is way, way too strong for Jiawei to compete against her. She's the world number 1 in the table tennis rankings after all. Our Jiawei crashed out without posing a real threat to Zhang Yining at all. Just like that fateful match 4 years ago.

Third up was a group match. Singapore's pair was Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu whereas China's pair was Zhang Yining and Guo Yue. Now, both Zhang and Guo are ranked world number 1 and 2 respectively in the rankings and it's clear who will win this round.

As expected, China took home the gold and you don't get prizes for guessing it right either. But it was a moment of pride that arose when the Singapore flag was raised above the podium. That was a moment for the whole nation to savour.

The last time the flag was raised during the Olympics was 48 years ago. It was to be a long wait before the next medal comes along. Boy, I'm glad that it happened in my lifetime. It was a joy to behold. That final moment of victory...

To be honest, Singapore could seriously get a shot at the gold but Li Jiawei threw a lot of precious points to China and there goes the gold. Perhaps it's really not meant for us now.

What we could do now is to celebrate the hard-earned silver. The rest can wait.

Cheers!

=)