Olympic Committee and Right to Information

Monday, 30 October 2017 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

While we everyday criticise our politicians for their corruption, we forget that corruption and abuse of office is not confined to those wearing the white national costume.

In the world of sport, those wearing coat and tie are even more thick-skinned when it comes to abusing office in order to enrich themselves or go on ego trips.

We have the example of many sports bodies where office bearers enjoy office for long periods, enjoying various perks while the respective sport is going down rapidly. When we meet international challenges our standards are pitiful to say the least. Often it is embarrassing to watch the performance of our teams.

There is a massive building called the Olympic House in Colombo 7. There are people who sit in air-conditioned offices there drawing fabulous retainers, foreign travel and allowances. What is our performance at Olympics, Asian games, Commonwealth games and even the weak SAARC games in the last 10 years? If these office bearers have any honesty they would resign straight away.

Our Olympic office bearers do far better than politicians by staying in office for a life period, often by fixing the elections. They go on and on while our athletics and other sports hit rock bottom.

The law is that the office bearers in the Olympic committee should have represented a recognised sport at a representative level. There are office bearers who have played the sport they pretend to represent only at a club level and that too only as ambitious social climbers (like golf, tennis, etc.).

Under our right to information, the sporting community is entitled to know the qualifications of the Olympic Committee members and the amounts they have earned (allowances included) during their tenure.

These should be made public for the sake of the suffering sportsmen in this country.

Gihan Jayatunga