THE CICAK.com

Kick the overspending, underachieving habit, Malaysia

Photo by Ctd 2005

By IZHAM ISMAIL

I can’t help being spiteful towards Singapore.

It definitely seems like Malaysians and Singaporeans just can’t get along. Like oil and water, cats and dogs, or however you put it, the relationship is hostile despite living side by side geographically.

By logic, they should be the best of friends. But unquestionably, both sides have done a great job undermining each other: I’ve heard of Singaporeans saying Malaysians are lazy, underachieving people, while Malaysians would be in high spirits to label their neighbour kiasu.

But whatever it is, Singaporeans play better football than Malaysians do, which gives me mixed feelings of madness, fury, embarrassment, discontent and disbelief that such a small country could make it big in football, at least in Asia. It’s official: three Singaporeans confirmed their place on the list of 25 candidates bidding for the 2008 AFC Player of The Year award. They are Aleksandar Duric, Indra Sahdan Daud and Mohammad Shahril Ishak, who are set to sit on the same roll alongside the likes of South Korean’s evergreen left-footed magician Seol Ki-Hyeon, Middlesbrough stronghold guardian Mark Schwarzer and Tottenham Hotspur’s Lee Young-Pyo.

The likes of our starlets Akhmal Rizal Ahmad Rakhli – tipped to be the next big thing after his two-year stint with French club RC Strasbourg – and the twin brothers Aidil Zafuan and Zaquan Adha, who came into view promoting cute Malaysian jerseys for Nike, among others, weren’t seen on the list. So what were the few hundreds of thousands of ringgits, if not millions, spent by the Football Association of Malaysia paid for?

And just few weeks before, FAM sent two Kedah players, Badrol Bakhtiar and newly promising (as always) chap Bunyamin Omar to train with Chelsea.

To acquire new experience, they said.

I say it was a waste of money, given that people in Chelsea might have more interest in working on their Barclays Premier League campaign than in grooming underachieving, short, physically disadvantaged Asian players.

The feat reminded me of our Angkasawan program, which sent Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor to space for RM105 million (roughly US$26 million). Malaysia beefed up its air force, became the 38th country to send a person into space and found prospects to explore how spinning gasing works in zero gravity, while there are at least 300,000 drug addicts, more than 4,500 people newly infected with HIV at the end of 2007, and more than 67,000 reported cases of motorcycle theft in Malaysia, not to mention thousands more living in poverty.

I believe we sent him for international recognition. Well, the Malay saying says it best: Ukur baju biarlah di badan sendiri (When measuring your clothes, let it be on your own body).

Why not start with the quality of our grassroots football? I am sure there are plenty of football enthusiasts and real football heroes around who work around the clock organizing football tournaments around the country, asking for sponsorship and monetary support. They need the money. Our football scene needs the money.

The selection of the three Singaporean players speaks volume about how Singaporean football has grown by leaps and bounds, which definitely sends a clear message as to why they quit from Malaysian football many years ago – Malaysian football just wasn’t, and still isn’t, up to the standards needed to pull off their careers.

I was particularly dejected, not because of their achievement, but more towards the apathetic Malaysian attitude towards making the country’s football big in the world arena. It seems we are not serious enough to make into the fray where big players would look up and see us as formidable competitors.

Stop calling them kiasu. They achieve more than us as we speak.

Towards a lively Malaysian football scene, and a much matured Malaysia.

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IZHAM ISMAIL is a contributing writer for theCICAK.

Izham is a devoted Malay who takes pleasure in football and reading. He has just finished two years at Kolej MARA Banting, where he was captain of the football team. Visit his site.