Jessie Phua elected FIQ President
30th August, Monterry: Singapore Bowling Federation's president, Mrs Jessie Phua was elected the new FIQ President for a 4-year term defeating incumbent, Steve Hontiveros of the Philippines, 97-74 at the 2007 FIQ Congress at Crowne Plaze Hotel Thursday evening. Three candidates stood for the top post, Hontiveros and challengers Salman Abdul Ghani, a member of the Qatar Olympic Committee and Ms Jessie Phua, an Executive Member of the Singapore National Olympic Council.
The meeting started 45 minutes late with Steve Hontiveros opening the meeting with his welcome address and introducing the dignitaries. As usual, the first business was verifying the proxies and there was 89 delegates present, carrying 76 proxies to give a voting strength of 165.
Hontiveros discussed points from his published President's report highlighting that FIQ membership had increased to 134 nations and confirmed that tenpin bowling will remain in the Asian Games in 2010 in China.
Dr P S Nathan of Malaysia, commented that he believed the door to inclusion in the 2010 Commonwealth Games has been closed but hope that it was not so. He added that he believed that tenpin bowling has been removed from the list of recognized sports.
Mrs Vivien Fung of Hong Kong, reported that the Olympic Committee is very active and has submitted a report to the IOC. Mrs Fung is also chairman of the Women in Sports Committee and they were planning to have a Women in Sport Committee in each zone.
The Malaysian and French federations put forward a proposal to delete the rule that persons over 70 years of age be barred from the Presidium. Arguments pro and con continued and it was seconded for a vote. A two-thirds majority was required for this rule to be removed and was achieved with 132 in favor.
There were four candidates for the office of President: Steve Hontiveros (Philippines); Salman Abdul Ghani (Qatar); Jessie Phua (Singapore); Cho Jong Gook (Korea). Cho Jong Gook withdrew his application in a short presentation.
Steve Hontiveros was the first to seek election by stating that he had done the best he could over the past four years. He added that he has started projects and he wants to see them completed. "I am sincere in my love of bowling," he stated. "I hope that you will support me to do my job for another term. Thank you for the support over the past four years."
Salman Abdul Ghani, a member of the Qatar Olympic Committee, stated that is time to establish our aims for bowling and start marketing. Without that there will be no future in bowling. FIQ needs to work further with WTBA and WNBA. "I call bowling a sleeping beauty and we need to wake up this beauty," he said.
Jessie Phua was the final speaker. She explained that although all candidates come from the same zone, they are all friends. "We are a sport in a desperate need of change," she commented. "We need to be current and progressive. for a sport that boasts of millions of participants, without any discrimination, recognized world-wide, why are we not in the Olympics.
"We are a house divided, on three corners of a triangle. We talk, but we don't communicate. We do not recognize the jewel in our hand. Let's work for a super world tour. Only when we are united and professionally managed do we truly deserve to be in the running for the Olympics."
A proposal for a secret ballot was approved. The result of the first vote was Hontiveros 66, Salman 37, Jessie 68. Salman dropped out for the second vote. The second vote result: Jessie Phua 97 and Steve Hontiveros 74.
The office of 1st Vice President went to Joan Ricard, Catalunya and the 2nd Vice President Gustavo Lopez, Guatemala. Both were elected by acclimation. The auditors were also elected. The next FIQ Congress will be held in 2009 in Melbourne, Australia in conjunction with the
2009 WTBA World Men's Championships. The Congress closed at 16:30.
Photos courtesy of MTBC.