– Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
July 28, 2011

JULY 28 – Football is the people’s game. It’s simple, engaging and enjoyed by both players and supporters.

But Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s football analogy this morning urging Malaysians to move from tolerance to acceptance was none of the above.

He called our diversity the “strength of our nation. As in a football match, people from our various communities help one another for the success of our team.

“If one of us score an own goal, we will lose. This (solidarity) value is important to us all, no matter the colour of our skin or how we look,” said the prime minister.

It remains unclear which team exactly he wants us to play for or support. On the one hand, there is 1Malaysia. There is also the power-sharing model under Barisan Nasional (BN) which isn’t all that bad an idea.

On the other, are the likes of Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Perkasa. Both are allowed to do or say as they please, like monsters that have grown too big for their master to control. Nothing seems to escape their fury – Chinese, Christians, Hindus, Jews and even Muslims who support PAS.

And we’re not done there.

It’s difficult to imagine that our prime minister has forgotten that even the use of the word Allah or Malay-language bibles by Christians is not tolerated. After all, he just met the Pope, didn’t he?

Meanwhile, Indians had to tolerate being called pariahs in schools as part of the Malay literature syllabus.

Our prime minister cannot have forgotten that he brooked no dissent from Bersih, demanding the electoral reforms group step off the streets and into a stadium, and then telling the movement to gather outside of Kuala Lumpur at the eleventh hour.

When they ignored him, police dispersed tens of thousands with tear gas and water cannon and arrested nearly 1,700 demonstrators, leaving scores injured and an ex-soldier dead.

Malaysians though, are asked to tolerate, no, accept that t-shirts of Chin Peng are a threat to national security, that nothing can be done about inflation and subsidy cuts and that big money deals fall under the Bumiputera agenda.

Just to top up the list, Najib’s administration also does not tolerate alleged Wahhabism or the colour yellow.

I have a football analogy too. Teams wear different colours on the pitch. The point is to ensure there is no mixup and everyone knows who and where their teammates are.

Najib’s mixed signals are leaving the public confused as to whether it’s Team Umno, Team Barisan Nasional, Team Malaysia, or even Team Najib that we’re rooting for.

Maybe if he made a clear stand on all the above instead of washing his hands of the actions of the civil service, police and party machinery, we’d finally be able to figure out who “our team” really is.

Najib is a Manchester United fan. But surely he must know that the Red Devils have not gotten to where they are simply by talking about not scoring own goals.

They get down on the pitch and score a few goals at the other end too.