While many of our readers felt that Lee Bee Wah, the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association, should have been more tactful in announcing the fates of manager Antony Lee and head coach Liu Guodong, there were a couple of you who agreed with her actions.

Lee lacked tact

S. C. NGOR:
OVERALL, I feel that Ms Lee has made many rash and overly harsh decisions although she may have had good intentions.

Instead of trying to find more excuses, she should be more gracious and do the right thing by admitting her mistakes.

She should review the whole situation and apologise to the team manager and the head coach.

COLIN NG:
THE actions taken by Ms Lee Bee Wah, the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association, are simply unbelievable and most uncalled for.

I find her actions taken to replace or dismiss the manager and possibly coaches were too rash and without due considerations and thoughts.

She tried to stamp her authority without even calling for a closed-door meeting and not waiting for the team's return was not a show of good management and compassion.

In every circumstance, there are reasons which need to be clarified, but to unjustly make hasty decisions of such nature was absolutely unnecessary.

She should have realised there was hard work and tremendous effort put in by the managers, coaches and players - and to make one silly hasty decision like this simply shows otherwise.

I think the table tennis association needs to do some re-thinking if they want to target a gold medal in London.

PHILIP:
DOES Ms Lee Bee Heng really "know best"?

Her actions, in Beijing, were highly disrespectful to the chef-de-mission, Mr Tan Eng Liang, who was overall in charge of Team Singapore, including sports heads.

He had already issued a statement accepting the explanantions of the table tennis team manager. There is no need for her to take action immediately, in effect overruling Mr Tan.

She should be courteous and respectful to the manager and coach even though they work for her, and especially to the Singaporean public.

Respect begets respect. So she lost it all by her actions. And so too our jubiliation for an Olympic silver medal.

NATASSHA HU:
ONE does not have to be working for ANY public relations firm to know that the timing and action taken by Ms Lee Bee Wah was tasteless, unprofessional and unbecoming of a president of ANY organisation!

Yes, everyone has the right to speak up with regards to that issue, but not in this insensitive manner.

To look at things from a more impartial perspective - it seems that Mr Antony Lee received the call from the coach in question on a last-minute basis that he was ill.

Assuming that to be true, any responsible coach (regardless of seniority) would have arranged for a qualified someone to cover for him while the competition was still in session.

That would probably fall on the shoulders of head coach Liu Guodong since he is likely the person to assign coaches to the respective athletes during their competition.

One would further assume that any head coach would have "Plan Bs etc." for any "in-the-event-of" type of scenario.

When this fiasco happend at the time of the competition, the furthest thing from Mr Antony's or anyone's mind (including head coach Liu) was to call Ms Lee on this issue.

The person who should shoulder the majority of the blame for this fiasco should really be head coach Liu, and the coach who had called in sick, unless it was a life-threatening emergency.

If Ms Lee is really so concerned about the welfare of ALL the players, why didn't she, prior to each and every competing session, check with Antony and/or head coach Liu as to which coach is supposed to be by which athlete's side the day prior to each competition?

If Ms Lee is really so concerned, then why didn't she rush to the Peking University Stadium to give her personal support to our athletes throughout the entire competition to ensure that there weren't any hiccups for any of our players?

If Ms Lee is such a detail-oriented person, then why is she not doing what she should be doing in the first place?

Her actions and her words do not match. This is a case of a substantial lack of diplomacy.

Lee did the right thing

J. H. GAN:
MS LEE Bee Wah is right in her decision, whether the timing is right or not.

The most basic rule when one goes to battle is: Never leave your men alone in the battlefield no matter what.

Can an army colonel who falls sick and orders his men to go into battle without him expect the men to come back glorious?

Many well-known organisations in the world have very strong mottos and the US Rangers in one of them. Their motto - Never Leave Any Man Behind - means they will fight together for glory or until death.

Alexander the Great fought many battles together with his men - even in times of sickness.

I am sure his men were all very highly motivated and won many wars with him.

Think of it another way, if a sick coach had turned up to support his man, I am sure Gao Ning would have been very touched and would have gone all the way.

C. P. TAN:
I APPLAUD the president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association, Ms Lee Bee Wah.

First of all, did Antony Lee cross the line in the chain of command? Just because he is from the Singapore Sports Council means that he will report to Mr Alex Chan or Mr Ng Ser Miang instead of his boss Ms Lee?

This saga shows a lack of respect by the staff in the Singapore Table Tennis Association even though the president has been there for only a month.

She is the right person by showing she is not kowtowing to anyone but to do her job for the benefit of Singapore.

Of course we must check all the facts and interview those who are involved in this saga.

Without a coach in a major tournament is a serious matter and there should be no excuse regardless of whether that player stands a slim chance of winning.

I am sorry but Antony cannot hide. Antony should instead take full responsibility as manager in this saga.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Aug 27, 2008.