It’s been exactly one week since Malaysia’s National Sports Awards was held in Kuala Lumpur.
Yet, the Jan 31 event, attended by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim continues to be a talking point among past athletes.
The main contention, for some of them, was a video featuring the winner of the Special Award, Zaki Abd Rahman.
In paying tribute to Zaki’s amazing efforts, the video highlighted some of the nation’s finest athletes, with the voice-over talent in the video mentioning: “Noraseela Khalid (hurdler), Nazmizan Mohamad (sprinter), Roslinda Samsu (pole vaulter), Robani Hassan (hurdler), Malik Tobias (decathlon), Faizol Harun (shot putter), Zaiful Zainal Abidin (sprinter), Nik Nor Azura Nik Mahmood (sprinter), dan lain-lain lagi (and others)”.
Former national hurdler Moh Siew Wei, a product of Zaki’s amazing programme, was unimpressed.
Winner of the 100m hurdles at the 2005 SEA Games, and having featured in several Asian Championships, Moh shared her views on Facebook.
This is beyond ethnicity, colour, or creed. Sports is, after all, colour blind (or at least it’s supposed to be).
It’s about honouring talents, who trained, ate, and motivated each other to achieve the ultimate goal – of doing their best for their country, Malaysia.
Zaki was the maestro who made such an environment possible, and as such, truly deserved the recognition. The other two who received the Special Award were former FIFA football referee Subkhiddin Salleh and veteran table tennis administrator, Chan Foong Keong.
We need more Zakis, Subkhiddins and Chans, that’s for sure.
While Moh made her views public, others shared their sentiments over messages and phone calls.
To be fair, listing each and every talent produced by Zaki would have made it a lengthy affair.
If there was a need to mention talents in the video, and in order not to offend others, then it should have been based on the number of medals they collected on the international stage. That would show that the talents mentioned were based on merit.
Otherwise, the easier route would have been a general statement about Zaki moulding some of the finest talents in the country, with the names of athletes projected on the screen, ala the opening crawl seen in every Star Wars movie.
This would certainly dispel any allegations of bias. After all, the award is for Zaki.
Some may call it an oversight. The more critical among us would say that this was simply unacceptable.
There was another “oversight” that took place a day later.
The FA of Malaysia (FAM), in paying tribute to its president, Datuk Hamidin Amin, for being elected as a FIFA Council member, produced a poster featuring Malaysians who once served the council.
Presiden FAM, Datuk Haji Hamidin Haji Mohd Amin meneruskan tradisi wakil Malaysia dalam Majlis FIFA.#FAM #HarimauMalaya#AFCCongress2023 #FIFA pic.twitter.com/wi4RhjpKq6
— FA Malaysia (@FAM_Malaysia) February 1, 2023
Two main things stood out in that poster. The first was the image of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, which was placed below Hamidin’s mugshot. This can be construed as being disrespectful.
Secondly, there was no picture of Malaysia’s first representative at the world body, the late Lim Kee Siong – a former Negeri Sembilan footballer who went on to become director of Omnibus Co. Ltd. He even has a road in Seremban named after him.
It’s sad that the national body does not have Lee’s image. A quick visit to the New Straits Times Press library in Bangsar, the National Archives, the National Library, or even the MyFoto website of the Malaysian Information Department, would have addressed this, and given justice to the man’s contributions.
This was, after all, the same national body that did not even know the number of goals scored by the late Datuk Mokhtar Dahari or where the Burnley Cup is.
There are lessons, without a doubt, that we can all learn from these episodes, and in upholding the ethos of sports – fair play and respect.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI, as Moh wrote, should be injected at all times, even when presenting an award. The idea is to get every Malaysian excited about sports and to emphasise the fact that sports is colour blind. In this instance, fair play is key.
Respect too should be accorded, especially when the individual is the nation’s head of state.
It’s best we embrace wholeheartedly the ideas behind the Malaysia Madani slogan launched by Anwar recently, built on six core values – sustainability, prosperity, innovation, respect, trust, and compassion.
Let’s embrace Malaysia Madani and hope that such “oversights” do not occur again.
Otherwise, this will be seen as just another ‘syiok sendiri’ initiative by yet another prime minister – all pomp and splendour at the top, but failing to work its magic on the ground.
