AUG 7 — With an overhead shot from around the baseline landing
outside the court, his dream, and with that a Malaysian collective
dream, ended. His opponent, dark, muscular and almost brooding, leapt in
the air, turned around and ran around the court, with his arm opened
wide as if he was going to take off the ground.
Datuk Lee Chong Wei gave his best. The Malaysian spectators at the
venue shouted and screamed in unison. But luck wasn’t with Lee.
Nothing much separated the two players, really. It was a gladiatorial
match. An epic. The best badminton match I had ever had the pleasure of
watching.
There were moments during the match when I saw moves which were
almost non-human in nature. Impossible speed, almost Spider-man like
agility, the will and power of men possessed with an ultimate dream, an
ultimate hope to win the ultimate prize.
At one point of time, I wondered how is it to feel the weight of the
hope and wish of 28 million people on one’s tiny shoulder. How does one
man deal with that? How does one man carry himself knowing every move of
his might disappoint 28 million people? What is in his head every time
he raises his racquet to serve, to smash and to return a drop shot?
I have nothing but admiration and pride for Lee and all our
Olympians. For all their sacrifices, their hard work, their pains,
blood, sweat and tears, dispensed in the name of national glory.
The Olympics, like any other mammoth sporting event, bring out the best and the worst in us. And the comical too.
Right after the opening ceremony, there were rumblings of how the
Illuminati were at work to take over the world in Malaysian cyber-space.
Clearly some of us have really fertile imaginations. Or perhaps some of
us Malaysian Muslims were just showing signs of low blood sugar level
during this fasting month. And so we read about the Olympic tree being a
tree which, in Muslim traditions, is a tree which is sympathetic to the
Jews, for example. I even received a private message on Facebook
telling me that a certain prince is the manifestation of the
anti-Christ. So I suppose this phenomenon is not restricted to the
Muslims only.
Then there are people — politicians, of course — who don’t seem to
know that there are moments when humanity takes over and politics
doesn’t seem to matter. Astounding as it may be, believe it or not,
there was a tweet by an opposition MP saying that Malaysia will win a
gold medal in the Olympics after Pakatan Rakyat “takes over Putrajaya.”
Good then. Put that in their party manifesto and ask the people to vote
for them in the next GE with that promise. And while we are at it, how
about telling the people that Malaysia will win the football World Cup
too after Pakatan takes over whatever? Just so to complete the
absurdity, tell us that the Middle-East conflict will be ended by
Pakatan too please.
The positive side of this is the fact that Malaysians will sit
together in unison to support the quest of our countrymen regardless of
our faith, our race, breed and creed. To my mind, unity manifests itself
in two forms, namely, situational unity and transcendental unity. We
experience situational unity in every aspect of our daily life. The
ultimate task for the government is to foster this situational harmony
into a more permanent and cohesive unity.
Malaysians have always loved sports. And as far as I could remember,
sports have always been the highlight of Malaysian unity. Never in any
other act have Malaysians displayed so much loyalty, faith and unity
than sporting events. I am old enough to remember how all of us watched
with pride when our national football team played in the 1972 Munich
Olympics. How we jumped in rapturous joy when James Wong scored against
South Korea to send Malaysia to the 1980 Olympics. How the whole of
Malaysia was transfixed when we hosted the 1975 hockey World Cup. And in
recent times, Malaysians will of course fill with pride every time
Datuk Nicol David or Lee win their respective tournament.
That proves that when faced with one ultimate — and common — aim and
purpose, a people of diverse cultures, faiths and interests as well as
of different races may set aside whatever differences they may have,
whatever misgivings they may harbour against each other and unite.
Our task, in terms of trying to foster unity and harmony, is to
create that ONE aim and purpose. I suppose we can begin by eliminating,
or trying to eliminate, anything which threatens to divide us.
Or perhaps, we could just start by showing up at the airport to give a
rousing homecoming to Lee and our Olympians. — art-harun.blogspot.com
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