This man said it well…
The heart-warming pictures of hugging and jubilation of Lee Chong Wei and his coach Misbun Sidek after Lee’s victory in the men’s badminton singles semi-final of the Beijing Olympics, say a lot about how two individuals with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds can cement a strong bond based on a common dream.
This eventually leads to progress and success. If only our politicians can learn from these two sports icons rather than emphasising on the differences among us Malaysians and create conflicts and misunderstanding, we can make this country great.
Malaysia is already endowed with smart people; blessed with rich natural resources and free from natural disasters.
We just have to put in the right policies, work diligently and with integrity, mobilise the people with one heart, one mind for a shared common goal, we can be among the best in the world. – Yee Chow Boi, Seremban.
The chase for that elusive Olympic gold medal in badminton ended on Sunday and our only representative in that field walked away with a silver. While many were happy for him, there were some out there who became angry at the fact that the government was giving him little reward for his “service” to the country compared to others who have done less and gotten more. Suddenly, people started trumping up the race card and before we knew it, him winning a silver medal for Malaysia became him winning a silver medal for Chinese-Malaysians first more than anything else.
Y’know, all this race-related card is old and it’s tiring having to listen to it again. We all jolly well know that we can’t exactly move up and ship ourselves (and everything we have) back to where our ancestors came from because we’ve called this crazy country home for too long – in my case, at least seven generations (what about you?). We all jolly well know that one should never fully trust the promises made by politicians who watch out for their own agendas more than the ones they are supposed to serve. Yet we willingly propagate the very stereotypes and biases that cripples the nation at every chance we get.
“If s/he was a Malay, things would be different. If s/he was a Chinese, things would be different. If s/he was an Indian, things would be different.”
It doesn’t help that this is a cyclic effect – we start it, then spread it to our children and others, who then grow up or spread it to more people and before we know, the government gets in on the action and then it spreads to more people. It’s just neverending.
When an American wins a gold medal for his/her country, do you see people going up saying “Oh, if only he was black/Latino/Asian!”? When a Thai or Singaporean wins a medal for his/her country, do you see people saying “Oh, if only he was Buddhist/Muslim/from the highlands, or Chinese/Malay/Indian!”? In our urgency and rush to bring up race, we forget that the sportsperson in question probably wasn’t even thinking of his own ethnic group when he was standing on the podium. But more of the fact that he represented the hopes of ALL Malaysians on his shoulders and how he disappointed them.
It takes a lot of reach to the finals of the Olympics, much or less participate. Every athlete goes in with the burden, hopes and dreams of honouring his country – patriotism more than racial politics. And frankly, after a while, it’s get tiring having to carry the weight of both on your shoulders, especially considering that the latter is downright stupid.
And after all this squabbling, we seem to forget that someone won a medal for everyone.
The people and not just politicians alone should take stock of Yee’s words. What is our common dream? Or is it more like a common problem? Or maybe people just need an upgrade like those memory upgrades we do for our PCs…