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Lampard penalty ends Man City’s unbeaten run Posted: 12 Dec 2011 03:15 PM PST LONDON, Dec 13 — Frank Lampard came off the bench to convert a late penalty as Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 yesterday to inflict the Premier League leaders' first defeat of the season and lift themselves back into title contention. City, reduced to 10 men for the last half hour, had wasted no time getting off the mark when Mario Balotelli netted in the second minute after a delightful through-ball from Sergio Aguero. Chelsea then weathered a literal and metaphorical storm as City dominated the opening period at a blustery and rainy Stamford Bridge and were lucky not to concede a penalty before levelling through a Raul Meireles volley in the 34th minute. That goal and the 58th-minute sending off of City left back Gael Clichy raised the home side's spirits and when Joleon Lescott handled Daniel Sturridge's shot, substitute Lampard fired home from the penalty spot on 83 minutes. City's first defeat in 15 matches opened up the title race. They have 38 points, two ahead of champions Manchester United and seven clear of third-placed Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. "We needed to do our job to get our Premier League challenge back on track and I think it's pretty much alive now," Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas told Sky Sports. "Our objective was to shorten the distance to the leaders today, we managed to do exactly that, we don't take an extra flavour from being the first team to beat them." City manager Roberto Mancini said his side had faced an uphill task with 10 men but that the real turning point had been the penalty that should have been given when David Silva was caught on the knee by Jose Bosingwa's shin in the area "The referee was there ... this changed the game," he said. "We can do nothing, we are the top, we know that it was possible to lose one game ... I hope we can do another 14 games without losing." City had sought to give a quick answer to questions over what effect last week's Champions League exit might have on their domestic campaign as they raced into an early lead. Aguero saw the space in the Chelsea defence to send a pin-point pass from the outside of his right foot to Balotelli, who rounded keeper Petr Cech and calmly slotted the ball in. The Italian striker greeted his goal with something much closer to a celebration than his usual nonchalance, half raising his arms as a flicker of a smile crossed his lips. PASSING MOVES Chelsea could only watch on as City patiently put together a series of fluid passing moves but somehow managed to contain their visitors and stay in the game. They had to wait until midway through the first half for their first chance, which came when Didier Drogba forced City keeper Joe Hart to make a low save. The Londoners drew level when former City forward Daniel Sturridge cut the ball back from a tight angle for a charging Meireles to smash home. Chelsea looked sharper after the break, with Juan Mata making some dangerous moves, and were further boosted with their man advantage. Clichy, shown his first yellow card early in the second half for a challenge on Sturridge, was given his marching orders after a badly timed lunge on Ramires. That forced City into sacrificing one of their main attacking options by taking off Aguero to bring on defender Kolo Toure and Chelsea capitalised. Lampard had been patiently watching from the bench before manager Andre Villas-Boas sent him on in the 73rd minute. Ten minutes later the 33-year-old midfielder was celebrating after stepping up to smash home from the penalty spot and his teammates mobbed him at the final whistle, with Chelsea firmly back in the title race. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

Johnson scorns Olympic traffic gridlock fears Posted: 12 Dec 2011 06:33 AM PST London Mayor Boris Johnson stands behind a logo for the 2012 London Olympic Games as he attends the official opening of the velodrome for the Games in this February 22, 2011 file photo. Johnson says fears that next year's Olympic Games will snarl up London traffic are as wrong as the doom-laden predictions of the 'Millennium Bug'. – Reuters pic LONDON, Dec 12 – Fears that next Summer's Olympic Games will snarl up London's traffic are as wrong as the doom-laden predictions of the "Millennium Bug" were, Mayor Boris Johnson said today. "Many say London will be gridlocked and expensive and traffic will be dominated by whizzing limousines of Olympic bureaucrats throwing up road spray into the face of multitudes of Londoners," he told a meeting. But he said the Olympic priority route network, which takes up 1 per cent of the city's roads, will be limited to 16 days plus a day or two to set the routes up and take them down again. Olympic "fat cats" will be encouraged to take public transport around the events, while tube transport such as the Jubilee line will operate with increased frequency. Johnson told delagates to the London Policy Conference meeting: "I genuinely believe that when the games are under way, we will look back at the anxieties as a kind of Millennium Bug that never materialised because most people travelling in most parts of London will not even notice that the route network exists." Fears about the Millennium Bug were based on largely false predictions that computers would crash worldwide at the start of the present century because of their inability to handle the date change from 1999 to 2000. Johnson said the July Games would boost the economy through job creation, Olympic-related initiatives in schools and improved infrastructure. – Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Madagascar fishermen protect mangroves to save jobs Posted: 11 Dec 2011 08:24 PM PST A fisherman crosses the mangrove on his canoe on November 11, 2011 in Belo-sur-Mer, western Madagascar. ― AFP pic BELO-SUR-MER (Madagascar) Dec 12 ― Mangroves spread over thousands of hectares of Madagascar's west coast, rich with fish and crabs, but fishermen have declared some areas off limits, seeking to ensure future catches. "The communities chose to close several sites for four months of the year, to allow the crabs and fish to reproduce," said Thomas of Blue Ventures, a British marine conservation group, who like other locals goes by just one name. Three sites totalling 200 hectares around the town of Belo-sur-mer were chosen to pilot the project in the coastal forests that cover 4,000sq. km of Madagascar. These thick mangrove swamps are home to mud crabs, known formally as Scylla serrata, whose catches are the economic mainstay of this region. Since 2004, community groups have closed more than 130 areas to fishing, but this is the first time they have blocked fishing in a mangrove. Antanimanimbo is a hamlet of a few wooden huts built on a finger of sand between the ocean and the mangrove. Its 100 residents live by the rhythm of the tides. "There used to be so many crabs in the mangrove. Now there's just a few. That makes me worry for future generations," said Jean-Francois, the 62-year-old vice president of the village's fishing association. The group decided to close an area of 120 hectares to allow the crabs to recover from years of overfishing, which had depleted the stocks. Special nets and the creation of reserves are solutions proposed by Blue Ventures and accepted by consensus among residents. "The entire village respects the ban because we organised meetings and discussions to think about protecting our fishing zone, and we decided to adopt this system," Jean-Francois said. To enforce the ban, the community enacted a "dina", a local law that every one agrees to abide by. Anyone who violates the ban can be fined by the community. "To introduce this system, Blue Ventures has a technique: exchanges among the villages. We bring fishermen to see villages where this has worked," said Thomas, who has worked on several similar projects. "Other fishermen from the north will also come here to see this site," he said. Blue Ventures' goal is to expand this model across Madagascar's southwest coast to help communities that are seeing their natural resources dwindle, whether it's crabs, fish, octopus or sea cucumbers, all types of sea life are affected. Overfishing is not caused only by local fishermen. Big fishing ships, sometimes without licences, drop their nets freely in Madagascar's waters. A study by Blue Ventures and the University of British Columbia in Canada found that nearly 4.7 million tonnes of fish have been caught since 1950, only about half of it known to authorities. Although local communities cannot do much to stop industrial fishing, they can protect coastal waters and create a place for themselves in the commercial market, Blue Ventures said. "If the fishermen adopt this system over the long term, they could negotiate better prices from buyers who will come when the reserve re-opens," Thomas said. ― AFP-Relaxnews Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

World still in arrears on climate change pledges Posted: 11 Dec 2011 07:25 PM PST Christiana Figueres (centre), executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, speaks with Brazil's Minister of Environment Izabella Teixeira (left) and chief climate envoy Luiz Alberto Figueiredo during a plenary session. The conference went an extra day. — Reuters pic DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 12 — When the Kyoto Protocol, the world's only legally binding pact to tackle climate change, was adopted in the economically booming 1990s, it was meant to be a down payment. The tentative promise yesterday, thrashed out over days of talks, that all the big emitters will eventually join an international scheme of carbon reduction targets is the latest small instalment and allows UN law to retain some value in trying to stop the planet from overheating. Environmentalists want much more. But persuading major emitters China and India, who were not part of the original Kyoto carbon cuts, and the United States, which signed but did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to agree to any kind of a global, legal deal is still a small step previous climate summits failed to manage. "International targets do two things," said Michael Jacobs, visiting professor on climate change and the environment at the London School of Economics. "They motivate and reinforce national policy and they give confidence to countries and investors that policy will last. "In the end what drives emissions reduction is national policy, not international targets. Durban can only provide the basis for this." The European Union, which has enshrined Kyoto principles into its own law, led the charge for an agreement that would eventually produce a top-down deal with legal strength, rather than the bottom-up approach as favoured by the United States and others, involving only domestic legislation and voluntary pledges. "We think you need a multilateral system," said Environment Minister Marcin Korolec of Poland, current holder of the EU presidency. He went so far as to compare the success of yesterday's deal with climate talks in 1995, which led to the Kyoto Protocol two years later. EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has repeatedly said the EU's own experience proves top-down, binding targets are the way to guarantee action. In addition to its commitment under the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union has its own set of three 2020 green goals, two of which are binding and one of which is not binding. It is on track to meet the mandatory goals of a 20 per cent drop in emissions and a 20 per cent rise in renewable energy, but is only expected to half-meet a third, non-binding aim of a 20 per cent improvement in energy efficiency through measures such as insulation and better building design. Greenpeace activists hold a mock party opposite the venue where the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) was being held. — Reuters pic The Kyoto Protocol inspired the EU's own legislation and for the treaty's supporters, it can continue to motivate positive change. Even the extremely lengthy debates, especially in Durban, where the conference broke records in terms of running over time, have intrinsic value. "Smaller countries have really been the conscience of the conference," said Jason Anderson, head of European climate and energy policy at WWF. He cited the impact of impassioned pleas from small island nations who fear they could sink under rising sea levels without a strong global pact. But he also said climate change talks were only one very complex forum for moving to a greener future. In parallel, a green technology race, driven by business momentum, has accelerated and the business community argues it is far more likely than UN talks to deliver on time. GREEN TECH RACE China and the United States, as well as being the two biggest carbon emitters, are at the helm of the contest to adopt greener energy sources. They had to be heavily persuaded to agree to any kind of wording in Durban that would imply legally binding carbon emissions cuts, but they have adopted green technology with enthusiasm. In 2010, China invested US$54 billion (RM170 billion) in low carbon energy technology, compared with US$34 billion for the United States, the US Pew Environment Group said. India, the world's third-biggest carbon emitter behind China and the United States, is also nervous that binding emissions targets might hobble its economic growth, but it too has also begun moving towards green development. It has to tackle issues, including the potentially huge capital investment costs of green energy, which are only cheaper in the long run. And it remains to be seen whether it can catch up with China and the United States. Equally, internationally binding agreements provide no guarantees of change. Canada, whose huge deposits of oil sands make it a financial challenge to reduce its carbon emissions growth, was theoretically bound by the first phase of Kyoto, but in practice had made clear it has no intention of meeting its targets. — Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Liam Neeson in ‘Battleship’ Posted: 12 Dec 2011 04:39 AM PST LOS ANGELES, Dec 12 – The second trailer for Battleship, an epic sci-fi action film, was released December 9, showing the battle scenes. Based on Hasbro's classic naval board game Battleship, the film is about a fleet of military ships that encounter spaceships in the sea as the Transformer-like vessels attack earth. By director Peter Berg (Hancock), this epic sci-fi action film stars Taylor Kitsch (X-Men: Wolverine), who will play the lead in the upcoming John Carter, another sci-fi action film due in March, as well as Alexander Skarsgard (Melancholia), model Brooklyn Decker, pop singer Rihanna, and Liam Neeson (Clash of the Titans). The footage shows sailors investigating a mysterious object in the water. As they move in for a close-up, a monstrous battleship from space emerges from the depths to attack earth and the fleet, seemingly no match for the invaders. Battleship opens April 18-20 internationally followed by North America a month later on May 18, 2012. – AFP Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

James Blake releases new EP Posted: 12 Dec 2011 03:52 AM PST LONDON, Dec 12 –  Prolific British electronic producer James Blake is has released a new EP, the follow-up to October's "Enough Thunder". Titled "Love What Happened Here", the new release will feature three tracks, including the title track and unreleased tracks "At Birth" and "Curbside" on the B side. The EP was released both digitally and physically yesterday via R&S Records. Blake (picture) made a name for himself in the music scene earlier this year with his self-titled debut album, the follow-up to three critically acclaimed EPs released in 2010. The LP was nominated for album of the year at the 2011 Barclaycard Mercury Prize, losing out to PJ Harvey's Let England Shake. – AFP Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Jurujual dituduh buat panggilan bom palsu Posted: 12 Dec 2011 02:29 AM PST TAPAH, 12 Dis – Seorang jurujual mengaku tidak bersalah di Mahkamah Majistret di sini hari ini terhadap tuduhan membuat panggilan kononnya terdapat bom di landasan kereta api antara Bidor dan Tanjung Malim, 1 Disember lalu. N Navindran, 25, jurujual jualan langsung, didakwa melakukan perbuatan itu yang diklasifikasikan sebagai ugutan jenayah, bertujuan mendatangkan kematian, cedera dan kebinasaan kepada orang awam, pada 1.45 pagi. Panggilan itu menyebabkan gangguan perkhidmatan kereta api hampir 10 jam. Tuduhan dikenakan mengikut Seksyen 506 Kanun Keseksaan yang membawa hukuman penjara tujuh tahun atau denda denda atau kedua-duanya sekali jika disabit kesalahan. Timbalan Pendakwa Raya Nurul Izalina Rajaai memohon mahkamah mengenakan jaminan sebanyak RM10,000 dengan seorang penjamin serta pasport antarabangsa Navindran diserahkan kepada mahkamah bagi memastikan kehadirannya pada tarikh perbicaraan. Nurul Izalina memberitahu mahakamah bahawa kesalahan serta tindakan tertuduh adalah berat kerana mengakibatkan kerugian RM500,000 kepada KTM Berhad dan mendatangkan kebimbangan kepada orang awam, lapor Bernama Online. Peguam V Santhiran yang mewakili Navindran, memohon mahkamah mengurangkan jumlah wang jaminan itu kerana tertuduh hanya bekerja sebagai seorang jurujual dan berpendapatan RM600 hingga RM700. "Mustahil tertuduh boleh bayar jaminan itu. Tambahan pula wang jaminan ditetapkan mahkamah hanyalah sebagai syarat untuk memastikan tertuduh hadir di mahkamah pada masa yang ditetapkan," katanya. Majistret Fairuz Adiba Ismail kemudiannya menetapkan jaminan RM6,000 dengan seorang penjamin. Kes itu akan disebut semula pada 9 Januari. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

PAS: Muhyiddin, semua terlibat kes NFC perlu letak jawatan Posted: 12 Dec 2011 01:29 AM PST KUALA LUMPUR, 12 Dis – PAS hari ini mendesak Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin selaku Menteri Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani yang menganugerahkan projek ternakan lembu Pusat Fidlot Kebangsaan (NFC) kepada keluarga Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil wajar meletakkan jawatan kerana 'lebih bersalah' dari segi pentadbiran kerajaan dan patut memikul tanggungjawab sebagai anggota Kabinet. Ketua Penerangan PAS Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (gambar) berkata kesemua pihak termasuk Muhyiddin harus tampil menerima tanggungjawab dalam isu kontroversi NFC. "Ya, keluarga Shahrizat menerima dan tidak mengendalikan projek tersebut dengan baik, bahkan terdapat unsur-unsur penyalahgunaan dana wang rakyat. "... akan tetapi siapa yang meluluskan projek sebesar RM250 juta kepada orang yang tidak berpengalaman dan tidak layak mengendalikannya sepatutnya mendapat hukuman yang lebih berat," kata beliau. Dalam satu kenyataan dikeluarkan hari ini, Tuan Ibrahim berkata, adalah tidak adil untuk bekas perdana menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad untuk bersifat pilih kasih dalam menyerang Shahrizat dengan menyuruhnya 'untuk berundur sebelum beliau diundurkan' tapi tidak pada Muhyiddin yang kini merupakan timbalan perdana menteri dan timbalan presiden Umno. Gesaan agar Shahrizat, Menteri Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat meletakkan jawatan semakin meningkat. Bagaimanapun beliau enggan mengulas apa-apa termasuk saranan Dr Mahathir Jumaat lalu. Bulan lalu, Muhyiddin berkata tidak wajar pemimpin Umno meminta Shahrizat berundur. "Dr Mahathir tidak sepatutnya pilih kasih dalam menegur Shahrizat dan tidak kepada Muhyiddin yang meluluskan projek ini. "Sekiranya sikap Muhyiddin ini dibiarkan berterusan semasa beliau menjadi timbalan perdana menteri dan seterusnya perdana menteri, berapakah lagi wang rakyat yang bakal terkorban?" tambah Tuan Ibrahim, yang juga Pesuruhjaya PAS Pahang. Tuan Ibrahim turut mempersoalkan tindakan Muhyiddin yang tidak lagi insaf dengan kesilapannya apabila menyatakan bahawa NFC hanyalah isu politik yang dicetuskan Pakatan Rakyat dan terus mempertahankan projek tersebut walaupun kewujudan penyalahgunaan dana awam yang susah dipertikaikan. "Bayangkan sekarang, Muhyiddin ialah bakal perdana menteri sekiranya apa-apa terjadi pada Datuk Seri Najib Razak, berapakah banyak projek di bawah kelolaan kementerian dan kuasa beliau yang akan berakhir seperti tragedi NFC. Bolehkah rakyat Malaysia menerima seorang bakal PM yang sedemikian?" soal beliau. Tuan Ibrahim menambah, Dr Mahathir sepatutnya membantu Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak yang tidak berani menegur timbalannya, untuk menegur Muhyiddin atas dasar membantu Najib membetulkan pentadbirannya. Apa yang pelik, kata beliau ialah bila mana hanya Shahrizat sahaja yang diminta berundur sedangkan Muhyiddin tidak diarahkan berbuat demikian. "Begitu juga dengan beberapa orang yang lantang mempertahankan penyelewengan ini, juga sepatutnya merasa malu kerana ia nyata bertentangan dengan norma biasa. "Sekiranya Shahrizat disuruh berundur, Muhyiddin pun harus menerima nasib yang sama. Jika Shahrizat saja berundur, tapi tidak Muhyiddin dan lain-lain, percayalah rakyat akan terus mencengkam isu NFC sehingga semua yang terlibat berundur," tambah beliau. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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Talking ‘bout evolution Posted: 11 Dec 2011 04:37 PM PST DEC 12 — As a child, it was mandatory to obtain Mum and Dad's permission before I could leave the house. It was also mandatory to inform them of my whereabouts at all times. Thankfully, I was mature enough to understand that the rules were imposed in my best interests. Hence, I followed them without much resistance. Dad was, however, particularly unreasonably strict. He would go to the extent of forbidding me from participating in optional school trips and innocent outings with my cousins. There were times when I would spend days prior to the actual trip obsessing about how I would ask Dad's permission, only to know that the answer would be a strict no. I would resort to political tactics by using Mum as an ally. Sometimes it worked, but most of the time it ended up in failed negotiations and days of cold war that followed. You see, Dad is a reclusive and introvert person. He believes in traditional values based on hard work and sacrifices. He believes that one must sacrifice frivolous pursuits and individualistic wants in order to maintain harmony and achieve academic and professional success. He also believes that if you release a horse's rein, the horse will go wild and never return once it has tasted freedom. So I grew up feeling in awe and at the same time resentful of Dad. I respect and admire him for his integrity and honourable pursuits and yet I can never agree with this particular principle of his that restriction is necessary to keep a person from straying. Perhaps, that is one of the reasons why I've become fiercely independent and feel suffocated in an authoritative environment. A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to accompany a group of young American fellows on a private tour of Malacca. The tour guide was an elderly man who takes great pride in his origin as a bona fide Malaccan. He was the perfect person for the job as he was knowledgeable, passionate and eloquent in his narration. I was particularly amused by his footnotes, some of which were not entirely relevant for the purpose of that tour. You see, he avidly shared his strong condemnation of the government's destruction of historical monuments and treatment of indigenous people. He was a sympathiser when it came to the topic of corruption and he even claimed that he works closely with indigenous tribes to protect their lands. You could see that he abhors some of the government's policies and was not ashamed to express it, even before a group of foreigners. After the tour, a few of us, including the elderly gentleman, stopped at on old-fashioned coffeeshop on Jonker Street to have coffee. I brought up the subject of the Bersih 2.0 rally in the most innocent of manner and asked what he thought about it. Indeed, he got pretty heated up but to my surprise, he was extremely critical of the demonstrators. He said that he did not condone the rally at all. He agreed that dissent is necessary but definitely not Bersih 2.0's method of choice. He argued fervently that assembly of any kind in protest of the government is not the Malaysian way. National harmony must not be compromised at all costs. When asked what else could be done if all diplomatic negotiations have failed, he was unable to produce a convincing answer. When asked how a peaceful assembly can be harmful, he struggled to articulate his thoughts. His point of argument was solely from a cultural perspective. It's simply not the Malaysian way of doing things. I found the juxtaposition of his contrasting views intriguing and could only conclude that he belongs to an older generation of Malaysians who still hold on to certain traditional values that are simply too strong to let go of. There are lessons to be learned from these two stories. I grew up in a generation that places greater value and appreciation for human rights and liberty as result of economic progress and globalisation. We are no longer isolated from the rest of the world and, hence, are able to evaluate, compare and conclude for ourselves that respect for human rights and true democracy is fundamental towards progress and human evolution. Some would say that this is solely a Western concept but seriously so what? Isn't it naïve to say that we want to be as progressive as Sweden but only insofar as its economy is concerned but not its form of democracy? Isn't the very piece of garment worn by most Malaysians on a daily basis influenced by Western fashion? Besides, honestly what is the Malaysian way? Is the Malaysian culture based on corruption and abuse of power? Democracy and respect for human rights is synonymous to progress. Brutal killing as a form of entertainment in a gladiator arena is a thing in the past. Child abuse and gender discrimination are now prohibited by our laws and they were not plucked out of thin air. It would be extremely foolish of the government to believe that all Malaysians of my generation would be content with just economic progress and half-assed implementation of selected rights according to their whims and fancies. Nature would dictate that human beings will continuously fight for their own survival. Once they've succeeded in that, they will move on to fight for freedom and progress. It's called evolution and has been historically proven by the fall of great dictatorial empires. Some would argue that there are those who genuinely reject progress and it's only a selected few who impose on them the notion of progress. As true as it may be, the keyword here is choice. Dad's method of discipline was wrong. If I had in any way betrayed his trust, he would have the right to punish me, but not to restrict me from the very start. The same applies to those who want to go on a peaceful street protest. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but that choice must be presented to those who have the desire to do so. Punish those who abuse that right but not those who want to exercise that right responsibly. Evolution is part of nature and it will happen whether we want it or not. There comes a time when every child will want to grow up to become a free adult. The question is when and how. This is something the government must think about. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

Sports and national unity Posted: 11 Dec 2011 04:24 PM PST DEC 12 — Harimau Muda or the Malaysian Thomas Cup team. Nicol David or Lee Chong Wei. In a nation increasingly fractured along racial and religious lines, where unity is increasingly elusive notwithstanding 1 Malaysia, sports and its followers provide a rare glimmer of hope. A strange hush descends at 19-all in the final game of a Lin Dan-Chong Wei match up at every mamak in town, and Facebook is awash with expressions of Malaysia Boleh after Malaysia puts it across Indonesia in the SEA Games football final. Why is it that the same people who cannot see eye to eye on anything else, whether it is PPSMI, NEP or the new MRT, can capture a spirit of unity while watching a game? Why is it that while all politicians are immediately looked at and evaluated through the racial lens first, sportspeople seem to have only one race — the Malaysian race? Shebby Singh, Mohammad Hafiz Hashim or Danny Chia are truly seen as being Malaysian first. After over a year and a half and millions spent on promoting the 1 Malaysia concept, the programme is mired in acrimony with even the deputy prime minister declaring himself Malay first. It could be argued that the entire national discourse, whether on determining seat allocations for the next general election, the nature of the civil service, the "Allah" controversy, the problems attracting FDI or doing business in Malaysia is about emphasising the separateness between communities rather than promoting a notion of inclusiveness and unity. In such a situation, ordinary people in the age of new media are forced to consider racial separateness as an increasingly real factor in their lives. Which school to send one's children too, which university to aim for, what kind of jobs to apply for and who to marry all need race to be factored in, rather than any notion of Malaysianness. Unity is a transient concept that needs hard work to be achieved, is easily dissipated and is much rarer than its counterpart: disunity. Unity also needs an outlet for its expression for it to have any meaning. Malaysians may be united by their love of food, but because it is expressed individually or in communities, it is hard to use it as a symbol of unity. For a sense of national unity to be fostered, conventional wisdom has it that there needs to be a defined enemy. After all, what is the use of waving flags if there is nobody watching? How can there be real pride in the country's Armed Forces if there are no wars to be fought and no sacrifices to be made? This is precisely why sport in Malaysia — above any other endeavour — is able to deliver this sense of unity. All sport is in opposition to a defined other, thus creating a visible enemy that forces a "with us or against us" attitude among its followers. Victory is the result of hard work that makes the sportspersons involved rise above their given identities of race and religion to become proud symbols of the qualities we all aspire to. As sport invariably needs spectators, victory is a spectacle of unity for all of us to consume, whether through the waving of flags, chants of "Negaraku" or the wearing of jerseys of the national team. Even though sport therefore has this ability to bring Malaysianness to the fore, it is a transient, fleeting sense. Once the game is done, everyday bickering resumes, and the same suspicions of each other re-emerge. Because of this transience of emotion and the fact that sport from a purely economic standpoint in itself is completely unproductive, there is a tendency in Malaysia to downplay its importance. After all, no goods and services are generated from a couple of people lobbing a volleyball over a net. However, a number of nations recognise that one way to conquer this limitation of sport as an engine of unity is to invest disproportionate amounts of effort and money to uplift the standard of sports to provide citizens with many more opportunities to feel united as a nation. Witness the huge impact the mighty Chinese sporting machine has had on a sense of Chinese pride. For a small country like Malaysia, maybe the real symbols of national pride and unity are not the twin towers but its sporting icons. Maybe when there are more Malaysian world beaters in sports, there will be less calls of Malay First, Malaysian Second in politics, and 1 Malaysia will acquire meaning, even when no money is spent promoting it. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Illustration by Chris Kwok. Full content generated by Get Full RSS.

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