Malaysia’s contribution in promoting the development of the Paralympic movement has been recognized by the international fraternity. From a humble organization, Malaysian Paralympic council has now grown from strength to strength to become among the leading paralympic organizations in the world.

It was a difficult and challenging first 10 years as awareness in disabled sports were relatively low. However, under the able leadership of its founder Dato’ Zainal Abu Zarin, MPC has now emerged as a credible entity.

Leading the way is Dato’ Zainal Abu Zarin, who currently heads the Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) as well as the Asean Para Sports Federation (APSF). He is the Malaysian who mooted the idea to establish the ASEAN Para Sports Federation and the Asian Paralympic Committee. He also had been elected as the IPC Governing Board member in 2009 who received the highest votes among 150 countries with the No. 2 ranking.

Malaysian leaders are playing an active role in raising the profile of disabled sports internationally. Apart from Dato’ Zainal, the other leaders who made their names in the international circle are MPC Secretary General, Mr. Kasim Abd Rahman, formerly the APC secretary general who is now the treasurer of the APSF, (Dr) S. Radha Krishnan who heads the IBSA Asia and Vice President of the APSF, Ms. Malini Rajasegaran who currently holds both APC and APSF Secretary General’s post and Tn Hji Zainal Abidin Md Alias and Mr. John Ng are the APSF Board of Governers. Mr. John Ng now had been recognized by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) and the federation had appointed him as Asia Representative effective from Jul 2011.

Besides, that Lt. Kdr Kamaruzaman Kadir had been recognized by IPC as IPC Technical Delegate for Powerlifting sports. Dr. Rokiah Omar and Dr. Vijaya Mohan had been accredited as World IBSA/IPC Classifiers (blind classification). Ms. Azimah had been recognized as IPC Classifier for Powerlifting as well. More than 50% of Malaysians were invited as Technical and Classifiers by APC to serve the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Para Games last December 2010. It is noted that, the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Para Games is qualifying games for London 2012 Paralympic Games. Besides Malaysian Athletes performance, Malaysian global leaders equally contribute to the success of the games.(For full list, please see the list under the human resource development)

‘We hope to nurture and produce more leaders and officials in the future to help raise the standard of the paralympic movement around Asia and the other parts of the world,’ said Zainal.

Not to forget under Zainal’s leadership, MPC had more than 200 technical and classifiers trained under the GPN 2010 blue print. More than 40% of the Malaysian Technical and classifiers had been accredited internationally and now they have been invited by the world bodies to officiate international/world championships. Malaysia’s leadership had been recognized highly by International Paralympic Movement.

Thank you Dato’ Zainal for leading the way and for your enormous contribution in promoting Malaysian leaders into the world scene.