The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 14 Jan 2013 04:10 PM PST JAN 15 — On Friday night I enjoyed a thought-provoking trip to watch Barcelona's basketball team take on Olympiacos from Greece in the highly popular continent-wide Euroleague competition. The experience was thought-provoking not so much for the game itself — an entertaining affair edged by Barca over the reigning European champions — but because it was the first time I'd taken my seven-year-old daughter to a major sporting event... and her reaction was most revealing. As you'd expect from an important game between two powerful teams, there was a pretty raucous atmosphere inside the close-to-capacity Palau Blaugrana — especially after a couple of early refereeing decisions went against the home team. Poor old Ilija Belosevic, the Serbian referee, was getting all sorts of abuse from the stands — Barca fans around us were up on their feet, banging their seats, whistling and shouting themselves hoarse as they questioned the merit of old Mr Belosevic's decision-making. It was nothing out of the ordinary — the same kind of thing that hundreds of referees in dozens of different sports are forced to endure on a weekly basis all around the globe. But for Lucy, my seven-year-old, it was a most unexpected — and unwelcome — state of affairs. You can imagine her state of confusion. After all, she's spent the majority of her life being told by her parents, her teachers and the wider expectations of polite society how she should behave around other people. Don't shout; don't make too much noise; learn how to share; learn how to deal with setbacks in a reasonable fashion; don't be rude to other people; respect other people even if you think they're wrong; respect other people's property and get your feet off the furniture... all the usual child-rearing, toddler-taming pearls of wisdom that are routinely drilled into practically every young child on earth. But now here she was, excitedly attending her first major sporting event for a contest that was being beamed on "live" television across the continent and beyond... and all those standards of behaviour were being thrown out of the window. "But Daddy!" she exclaimed, after frantically covering her ears from the deafening din of the whistles and jeers. "These people shouldn't tell the referee that he's not doing a very good job! That's not very kind!" Later on, when a Barca player was (rightly) penalised for charging into an opponent when the crowd (wrongly but inevitably) claimed the decision should have gone the other way, more perplexity followed. "But the Barca player did run into that man, I saw it! Why does everyone think the referee made a mistake when he didn't?" And her bewilderment reached its peak in the third quarter, when Olympiacos were awarded another hotly-contested penalty and their point guard Acie Law stepped up to the free throw line... and the Barca fans responded by raising the roof with their whistles, jeers, foot-stamping and seat-banging in an attempt to put him off. "That's not fair!" stammered the outraged Lucy, who was stoically resisting my attempts to get her to join in with the baying mob. "He's only trying to play the game, they should let him concentrate!" Doesn't she have so much to learn? One day, before too long, she will realise that for some strange reason, all the normal rules of society no longer apply when attending a major sporting event. In the role of "fan", it suddenly becomes perfectly acceptable to take defeat badly, to shout, scream, whistle and stamp. Tantrums? No problem. Feeble excuses for failure? Feel free. Lack of respect for authority? Go for it! Ahh, if only it were so simple. Think about it more closely — as Lucy forced me to put up with her post-match questioning on the walk home — actually it's more subtle and nuanced than that. Being a fan has rules as well — they're just very different — and some forms of behaviour cannot be tolerated, even in the anti-social hot-house of the sporting arena. It appears to be perfectly acceptable, for example, to scream at the referee that he's a bare-faced cheat and that his mother is a whore. Happens all the time. But if you react to a great piece of play by jumping out of your seat and running up to your favourite player to give him a warm congratulatory hug... woah! Get outta here, that's out of order! And if you happen to be watching cricket, rather than basketball or football, forget everything you've just un-learned and revert to the normal standards of decency. It might be fine to boo your opponents' every move at a football stadium, but whilst reclining in genteel fashion at the cricket ground, we should recognise their ability and reward it with a polite yet restrained round of applause. If, on the other hand, you find yourself in Serbia or Russia and one of the opposing team is black, you may wish to indulge in a spot of brainless racist abuse. Throw bananas, make monkey noises, whatever — everyone around you will probably be doing it, so why not join in. Try that in the UK, though, and you'll soon find yourself spending the evening in a police cell. For anyone not getting the point, I'm not condoning racism, and I'm not suggesting that every Serb or Russian is racist. I'm highlighting different standards of behaviour and social norms — and that, in fact, is the whole point. We have throughout society an enormous number of conventions that everybody is implicitly expected to understand and conform to — and for the most part, they do. But sport, for a series of complex socio-cultural-political factors that are far too complex to examine here, has become a great, anomalous exception — a significant area of public life that has rules of its own. Some of the conventions of fandom are perfectly reasonable and need no further questioning. But perhaps we would do well to re-examine some aspects of our "fan mode" behaviour; after all, if a seven-year-old thinks that lapsing into blind rage a complete loss of partiality is the wrong way to behave, why shouldn't an adult? * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| Breaking away from partisan politics Posted: 14 Jan 2013 03:38 PM PST JAN 15 — I must applaud every party that was involved with Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat recently for its success. It was indeed a peaceful assembly and perfect display of the people exercising their freedom to voice out their opinions in a legal and acceptable manner. Frankly, I would not refer to the assembly as Himpunan Shamsidar, simply because the name does not make any sense to me. I bet it does not to you either. In hindsight, the successful and peaceful rally highlights the fruits of political transformation backed by the Prime Minister Najib Razak. It is testament to the government's commitment in upholding civil liberty, which should be welcomed with open arms. Indeed, this is what it means when we say that the era of the government knows best is over. The issues that were highlighted, such as oil royalty, free elections and others are among many pressing issues concerning Malaysians as we head into the most anticipated general election soon. While I agree that these issues must be addressed seriously by the government, I would like to disagree on another aspect of the assembly. Once again, we have seen how civil society organisations are being intercepted by political parties. It is hard to say that the civil society groups involved were neutral when in fact the whole thing turned out to be just another political assembly. I say this because even if the issues are being politicised, most of them are fundamentally non-partisan issues. Fair enough, our lives deal with a great amount of politics which we can hardly avoid. However, the crux of the problem is that when we cannot tell the difference between politics and partisanship. Without realising it, we let ourselves be partisan by turning those issues into a partisan debate. Accordingly, as the issues are being viewed along a partisan divide, we then urge more people to choose sides and separate themselves based on how political parties perceive these issues. This process would not stop; one problem will continue to create another layer of problems and so on. Ultimately, we will end up in a vicious cycle of partisanship, which is hard to break. We are talking about two separate entities with two different objectives here. Political parties have vested interests, but their sole ambition remains the same, which is power. On the other hand, civil society groups must play their role in providing the much needed check and balance against politicians. They must not get dragged along the course of political struggle. The principle should not be the political parties, and civil society should not become their agencies. This whole principle-agent relationship must not even exist between the two. For a country like Malaysia particularly, with strong and influential political parties embedded in the system, the need of this sort of check and balance mechanism is even more crucial. Truth be told, judging from the situation today, it is hard to see us coming together as a nation. We are currently living in a Malaysia which is split and politicised. This worrying trend must be reversed, which is precisely why I believe one step that can be taken to break away from this trend is by having strong and free civil society groups. They must be the agenda setter and bring people together to sketch our political landscape, without being interfered with by any political parties. Essentially, this is what participatory democracy is all about. Civil society must shape the agenda to be followed by political parties, instead of the other way around. Democracy can be strengthened when civil society organisations provide a platform for interests that cut across culture religion and other identity ties. When people are coming together on the basis of their common interests, civic life will become richer, more complex and more tolerant. It is important that they do so without being attached to any political party. Only then we can have issue-based discussions again, free from any elements of partisanship. This will pave the way forward towards a mature democracy that has been long envisioned and advocated. And hey, since the Peaceful Assembly Act has been proven to be effective, why don't the opposition parties conduct another assembly? Well, another one on their own without having to rally for support under the banner of civil society again. Who knows, you might just hit your one million attendance target this time. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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