Commentary by Mustafa K. Anuar

IN his attempt to help raise the bar for national sports, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob recently offered a reward of RM20,000 to athletes who succeed in breaking national records at the Higher Education Institution Games 2022. 

While today’s rich and powerful may consider the reward chicken feed, the government’s action is aimed at helping produce more high-performance athletes so they can represent the nation and win big in major international championships. 

Competitiveness and hard work generally bring out the best in people, which is crucial in the primary goal to succeed in sports. 

But, as Ismail rightly pointed out, there is more to sports than meets the eye. It also fosters teamwork, strategising, and decision-making, and inspires patriotism and unity. 

This is because sports is a microcosm of wider society. 

A competing team must be united around the same objective of working together towards winning a competition, so each member harbours a vital sense of having a stake in that victory.

As in sports, nation-building demands teamwork as well, in crafting strategies and policies to achieve long-term objectives. 

Given that nation-building is a colossal task, it is imperative that while the government plays its expected role, all other stakeholders, particularly civil society groups, local communities, and concerned citizens, are also expected to contribute in various ways for the common good.

This is in addition to the opposition playing its traditional role of ensuring check and balance, and providing alternative ideas and policies. 

That is why public feedback on certain government projects and constructive criticism must not be perceived and treated by the government as unnecessary annoyances, or worse, a criminal act to be penalised.

Hence, criticisms of a particular highway project, for instance, that has adverse environmental impact on local communities, must be listened to by the powers that be. To bulldoze on with the project despite local protests is unjust as it deprives communities’ right to be consulted as stakeholders. 

Similarly, Orang Asli, who are often in the margins of society, must be consulted before the so-called development activities encroach on their customary land, which would affect their livelihoods and culture.

They are also important stakeholders as they serve as useful guardians of the rainforests in the country to check uncontrolled logging and other activities that may be destructive.

In sports, a team may not work effectively as a collective if there is, say, gender or racial discrimination being practised. This is because such an injustice may weaken a sense of comradeship and togetherness that are crucial to unite and mobilise them towards the ultimate goal of winning. 

By the same token, a minority group that falls victim to marginalisation by the majority community on the basis of race, creed or political affiliation might not acquire enough sense of belonging to the wider society, so social polarisation may rear its ugly head. National unity becomes an uphill task as a result.

Sports also instils values of compassion, respect, and humanity, because sportsmen would require understanding, assistance and cooperation among themselves in the long struggle to achieve success. 

The societal analogy would be the indifferent attitude of certain political leaders towards the economic hardship faced by the needy and dispossessed. This, in turn, would create a socio-economic gap, slowing down the process of nation-building.

It is desirable to have our sportsmen gain record-breaking successes at international competitions. 

This is definitely much better than having certain unscrupulous politicians break all rules of good governance and financial prudence, with the country having to suffer from international ill repute. – August 16, 2022.