Are they embarrassed? They don’t seem embarrassed. They certainly should be. I refer to the a whole bunch of idiots in my country which are making me embarrassed to be called a Malaysian. The incident is the recent National Swimming Trials at the Malaysian Games in Trengganu which finished with an unprecedented 21 new national swimming records. With the Beijing Olympic Games 2008 just a couple of months away, everyone was impressed with our swimmers form.

There was celebrations and our swimmers were feted for their strong performance which seemed almost too good to be true. Almost too good to be true. In fact, really too good to be true. So someone decided to measure the length of the Olympic sized pool at the Trengganu Sports Complex.

Red Face No: 1 – A local newspaper which was alerted by swimming fans and swimmers, measured the 50 m long Olympic-sized pool and repeatedly found it actually measured only 49.6 m or 40 cm short. If true, the phenomenal number of records set could not be officially counted. The poor swimmers. Everyone pointed to the culprit which they decided had to be the authorities who managed this new Sports Complex.

Red Face No: 2 – The Amatuer Swimming Association of Malaysia (ASUM) gave a good showing of righteous indignation and berated the authorities for the shoddy construction of the swimming pool that was now found to be short of the mark……..that is, until it was revealed that ASUM had been paid to certify the pool was to Olympic specifications. Well, the egg was now on ASUM’s faces.

Red Face No: 3 – Despite calls to officially measure the pool and end the dispute, the State Director for Public Works decided to share the shame by coming out with a statement that said that the pool was “fine” during the Malaysia games and there was no reason to re-measure it just because someone now claims it is short. When asked what would get him to re-measure the pool, he said that there must first be a formal complaint.

Red Face No: 4 – ASUM Secretary said that the local chapter of ASUM had measured and certified the pool to be 50 m previously and urged the public not to doubt it as it was measured by “professionals”.

Red Face No: 5 – The spokesman of the local chapter of ASUM seemed less certain when he said, “We HOPE the pool is the right length.” After a pause, he added “Of course, 21 games records are on the high side but ……..then again, many national swimmers were present.”

This has been going on for the last three days. Awwww, come on already fellas……..just measure the stupid pool.

Why aren’t they embarrassed?