By CC Pung, J.P
Tokoh Wartawan Sabah and FT Labuan.
China shared top spot with the US in gold medal tally at the recent Paris Olympics.
Not so long ago at the 1932 Olympics in LA in the US, China was represented by only a single athlete.
The same flag won about 100 medals in Paris.
It is a change that no superlative can truly justify.
It is also one that the world media conveniently overlooked, while the world’s top sporting nations refused to acknowledge.
In 2008, China hosted its first Olympics, and it rocked the world in terms of its magnificence, technology, creativity and class.
From the depth of the nation’s “Century of Humiliation’ to the glory of 2008 is just a short span of 76 years. It’s an example unheard of.
Malaysia is approaching its 7th decade of independence in a few years.
Unlike china, it didnt have to go through any world war or civil war.
At least the Malaya heartland of Malaya is since it gained independence in 1957.
What are the chances of Malaysia hosting the Olympics?
Or for that matter, when will we win our first Olympic gold medal?
Call me a traitor, unpatriotic immigrant if you like, but I think a gold medal is as unlikely as a certain Dr Mahathir Mohd admitting his Indian ancestry.
After being a nation this long, our unity should no longer be questioned by any ‘if’ or ‘may be’.
While so many of us are wondering aloud, right now in Kuala Lumpur, there is a big conference about the transformation of the economy of bumiputeras, the privileged group of Malaysians who are the majority.
Bumiputeras have been enjoying discriminatory privileges in the economy since 1970.
There are still widespread, albeit hard to justify grievances that this group is still falling short and must therefore continue to have special (read unfair) rights and privileges.
I’ve yet to find out what transformation is being targeted at the conference.
But I’m asking why bumiputera economy only and not the Malaysian economy as a whole.
Can’t the geniuses behind the conference not see that we have problems with unity, and that unity can’t be looked at from just a Malay lens, unity is the product of the sum total of every aspect of Malaysian life.
In trying to determine China’s miraculous transformation since 1932, and particularly since Deng Xioping opened up the China economy in 1970-80, experts have pointed to China people’s unity of purpose n determination as a factor often overlooked.
Prompted on this note, I looked at India’s rather measly 5-medal haul in Paris.
India has 1.4 billion people, slightly more than China.
But it is unfoutunately fractious, so bad that even its once feared men’s hockey team has gone into oblivion.
A country’s overall state of affairs is, to me, a prerequisite (bloody obviously) to national wellbeing, and then only sports excellence is possible.
In that sense, Malaysia’s so-called ‘Road to Gold’ ambition at Paris was destined to fail.
Just imagine our best shot was in badminton, and yet the best bet in men’s singles was in Paris as an independent player, and the women’s singles went to Paris without her coach due to funding issues, while an official (since resigned) took his wife and child there on a junket.
You must be joking!
Editor: The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the talantang.com
