KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 6 — The Malaysian rugby fraternity mourns the passing of former Asian and national referee K Maniam, who was known for his dedication to travel from Taiping, Perak via bus and train to officiate matches in the Klang Valley.
Known as ‘Cikgu Maniam’ in the fraternity since the 1970’s, Maniam, 77, died of cancer at 9.20am today, at his family residence in Brickfields here.
Malaysia Rugby president Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya said Maniam was synonymous with Malaysian rugby and that he had dedicated his life for the development of the sport in the country.
“A very sad moment for MR and the sports fraternity. He was a long serving official at the national and regional level, he even officiated the matches I and my team played in the 1990’s.
“Cikgu Maniam also had a very good reputation at the international level, especially in Asian rugby. He managed to bring up and educate many of our local referees to officiate matches at the regional level,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Perak Rugby Union vice president S Sevakumar (rpt Sevakumar) described Maniam as a very dedicated official, saying that he was willing to travel about 260km using public transport to officiate matches in the Klang Valley, when he was serving as a teacher at SMK King Edward VII and headmaster at SJK(T) YMHA in Taiping.
Maniam started his refereeing career in 1975, officiating school level matches and later gained recognition to become national and Asian level referee in the 1980’s who officiated the 1985 Asia Cup.
He retired as a referee in 1990 but continued to serve in various roles in MR and Asia Rugby till his last breath. Among them were as Coaching Match Official, Assessor and Citing Commissioner.
For his contributions, Maniam was awarded the Asian Rugby’s ‘Carlson Lin’ Match Officiating Award in 2014.
The funeral is scheduled to be held at Palm Court, Brickfields at 1pm Sunday, followed by cremation at the Cheras Crematorium.
— Bernama
