At the Semi Finals stage of the Thomas and Uber Cup certain trends are becoming obvious :
1) Progressive nations like China and Korea continue to improve in the Uber Cup,albeit with minor flaws.Other progressive countries like Japan,Taiwan,Germany and Thailand continue to progress and threaten to upstage the top two.Countries like Indonesia and Malaysia continue to be stuck in their insularity,protection,
complacency and archaic systems just like other institutions in their countries and continue to fall behind, although Indonesia has provided some sparks from their young players,probably because they recognize their limitations and have sought help from outsiders.
2) In the Thomas Cup it is still the big guns of China,Korea,Japan and Denmark holding the fort, whilst yet again Malaysia and Indonesia have fallen by the wayside.Just as Japan had beaten Malaysia in the last series, this time they also claimed Indonesia's scalp denying Indonesia a place in the semis for the first time since 1958.Korea has the help of Chen Gang, Japan the stewardship of Park Joo Bong and Indonesia the help of Li Mao (but only showing results with the women.). It is no secret that many of the senior Indon Thomas Cup players do not accept Li Mao's methods and continue to rely on their old local coaches,lets see how far they go. Malaysia as usual still maintains their top heavy bureaucracy with foreign coaches passing through like a who's who like Han Jian,Yang Yang,Fang Kai Xiang,Frost,Park Joo Bong, Rexy Maniaky,Li Mao,Yoo Yung Sung,Hendrawan and most of the locals do not appear to have learned anything from these greats but continue to bay for more local "talent" to institute changes and progress as the rest of the world keeps moving ahead.In Malaysia's case it is reflective of everything else in society,resisting change,preserving old comfort zones,taking the easy way out and earning easy money, keeping jobs and maintaining lifetime employment.Darren Liew and Chong Wei Feng have shown signs of coming through but it is alarming that they are only now coming through when it should have happened long ago.Even foreign coaches have made comments on Hafiz's physical limitations and limited skills but local players dont even have the vision or guidance to see it and displace him.
In short both Indonesia and Malaysia seem to have a common thread in their slide and only the blind can fail to see it. It is not only confined to a petty thing like badminton ,and all boils down to a primitive culture steeped in feudalism, politics in everything,poor values and lack of ethics and a very weak education system.The key words are well forgotten words in the local vocabulary such as "MERIT", "OBJECTIVITY"and "INTEGRITY" ,words which are part of everyday life elsewhere but are extinct in the local mentality and exemplified in the nature of the leadership.
