Poison pen letter writer – a whistleblower or a coward?

HAVING chronicled the Malaysian football scene for more than three decades, this scribe can safely say the venomous poison pen letter with the long list of allegations against the president and general secretary of the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) is not exactly unprecedented.

There was a similar incident in 2008, when the then FAM general secretary Datuk Seri Azzuddin Ahmad survived a political siege designed to throw the federation into turmoil as part of a grand scheme to topple the late Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah.

After a series of poison pen letters handed to the media did not gain traction (before we were consumed by the social media), a group, said to be led by officials from one of the more successful State FAS, submitted a memorandum to Sultan Ahmad Shah through a third party.

The memorandum, handed over to the Sultan also in the holy month of Ramadan 16 years ago, contained allegations of poor management and malpractices in FAM. It was the group’s last resort in their bid to undermine Azzuddin’s leadership.

Azzuddin was a former left-winger in the Merdeka Tournament in 1972 who later rose to the position of the director-general of Military Intelligence. Prior to being appointed as the FAM general secretary in 2007, he was the National Under-20 team manager and chairman of the FAM referees committee.

The retired Lieutenant General was a head of the FAM secretariat who played it by the book.

But in contrast to the 2008 episode which was a scheme concocted by certain leaders in cahoots with a few vendors outside of the FAM headquarters, the surat layang that went viral ahead of FAM’S 60th Congress on Monday appears to be written by a disgruntled individual or a group of individuals who used to be or are currently on FAM’S payroll.

The content of the letter, sent over to almost all FAM’S stakeholders including the media via the email ultrasfam6@gmail.com, contained sensitive information privy only to a few.

The allegations centred on abuse of power by the FAM general secretary, salaries of the President and benefits of staff, overpaying of services, issues involving the Harimau Malaya squad’s preparation ahead of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, and the national training centre (NTC) project in Putrajaya.

In the post-congress press conference, FAM president Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin took the opportunity to denounce the content of the letter as defamatory and a personal attack on Datuk Noor Azman Rahman, who was appointed to the general secretary’s post succeeding Mohd Saifuddin Abu Bakar in August 2022.

In the same press conference, Noor Azman expressed his intention to forgive the writer, especially since it was Ramadan but not before uttering the words “who knows if he is to die in an accident before seeking my forgiveness”.

Although sending anonymous letters is unhealthy and cannot be condoned, in the eyes of the public, ultrasfam6 is an informant in disclosing alleged wrongdoings without exposing his or her identity.

Whether history judges him or her as a whistleblower or a coward hiding behind anonymity, the objectives of the letter remain the same – to uncover wrongdoing and draw attention to malpractices.

For Sayf Ismail, who served as head of marketing and social responsibility at FAM from 2014 to 2016, he could understand the motives behind ultrasfam6’s letter.

Posting on X, Sayf said FAM staff had no choice but to express their frustration on social media anonymously due to the lack of proper internal mechanism or channel to voice their grievances.

“They have to do it anonymously for fear of repercussions. If the letter was signed by a staff, disciplinary action will be taken against him or her.

“Since the matter will be brought up to the attention of the FAM Integrity Committee, I hope they will investigate allegations of financial improprieties independently and without fear or favour.”

The FAM will continue to come under greater scrutiny the next few weeks as they seek to control the damage.

The Malaysian Anti-corruption Commission (MACC) have reportedly begun investigation while FAM deputy president, Datuk Wira Mohd Yusoff Mahadi, was also reported to have said an internal inquiry will be conducted where FAM staff will be interviewed.

In the interim, will ultrasfam6 be sending more emails soon?