Surprise! Surprise!

The press conference held by Dr. Iskandar Abudllah did not go as expected.

Why?

I would love to pose the question to National Sport Council director general Datuk Zolkples Embong. It was he who spoke on Iskandar's behalf here and it certainly backfired.

Read the following story to enlightened yourself. Please enlighten me as well.

by VIJHAY VICK

KUALA LUMPUR

It has all the ingredients of a political game - only that the setting is the national athletic scene.

Yesterday, it was Malaysian Athletic Union's (MAU) out-going general manager Dr. Iskandar Abdullah's turn to jump into the arena. However, it did not go down as speculated to.

It was expected that Iskandar would reveal some insight information on the workings in MAU as National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Zolklpes Embong had told the press so a day earlier.

However, Iskandar denied the allegations by Zolkples and strongly stated that there is no office politics in his removal as general manager.

"Everthing was done is good faith and there is no bad blood between me and MAU deputy president Karim Ibrahim," said Iskandar.

Zolkples had told a Malay tabloid that Iskandar had called him regarding the matter and informed him that Karim had asked to cheat on several occasions and often took decisions against decision taken by the MAU council.

"Nothing of such happened. When I was asked to resign I was sad but accepted it with full gratitude. It was Karim who offered me this job as we had previously worked together," said the 55-year-old.

Iskandar begun work at MAU on August 1 this year after Karim convinced him to leave the government service.

However, there is suspicion as to his role in MAU despite being acknowledged as the new MAU  general manager by the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).

Despite being appointed by MAU, many were not aware of this. Infact the supposedly former general manager M. Latchumanam was still around.

It was Latchumanan who sent Karim's press statement to the media last week - in the capacity of MAU general manager.

"He was supposed to leave but was always around. I don't know what's the situation with him," said Iskandar.