COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
4 October 2014

The capitulation of the national sepak takraw team at the Asian Games in South Korea this week pretty much sums up sports and increasingly life in Malaysia.

Once, the sport brought us glory in regional competitions. But we have yet to win a gold medal in the home-grown game since it became a medal sport in the 1994 Asian Games.

And this week, we lost in the semi-finals to Thailand.

Now it is only a reminder of what once was – that Malaysians were the sportsmen to beat in the Asian region. And we are constantly harking back to the old days when we talk about sports.

The same story with football and our never-ending love story with SuperMokh, Chin Aun, Santokh or Spiderman Arumugam.

And even hockey or badminton – sports that were dominated by Malaysians in the 20th century.

But Malaysia missed the gold medal target at the 2014 Asian Games and nearly lost out to Singapore for the second straight international competition after the Commonwealth Games.

Our target was eight golds but our contingent could only haul five. We have done better in the past. Not any more.

And think how more dismal it would have been without squash queen Datuk Nicol David. One day soon, we will scour the landscape of international squash and wonder what happened to Malaysia’s dominance in this sport, as we do with badminton.

And it is the same story with life in general in Malaysia.

We are constantly looking back with nostalgia to a better time, when governance was better, when race relations was better and when our leaders, actually led.

These days, we treat some national leaders and politicians as national jokes with some even better than stand-up comedians every time their lips move. We even wonder where they are, let alone wonder if they can lead.

We used to punch above our weight class in sports and politics.

Founding prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman led the boycott of South Africa over apartheid and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was vociferous about Palestine, the Bosnian conflict and the Gulf War.

Today, we speak of moderation in the United Nations General Assembly in New York but allow extremists to dominate the national discourse. Reason has given way to shrill intolerance and our leaders remain silent at home.

We have had better days, in sports and life. And we wonder where did it all go despite the economic and technological progress that has kept us in the top 20 trading nations in the world.

Yes, this seems to be the sport we are best at – reminiscing about a time when we once were better. – October 4, 2014.