Talking about real Malaysia, those sign or the slogan are all nothing but bloated propaganda and empty promises to most of Malaysians, yet tonight Lee Chong Wei has shown us the true spirit of 1 Malaysia.
Bringing his ankle injuries to the Olympic games without a full recovery, deep down in every Malaysian's heart have sort of given up on the hope of him bringing back the gold medal despite multiple adverts and commercials spreading all over the media and billboards. With a tough game fighting Finland's Ville Lang with 21-14, 8-21, 21-11 in the first round, it's hard to imagine Lee Chong Wei repeating the scene of him battling Lin Dan in the finals like the last Beijing Olympics. Yet, he made it against the odds by bringing down Indonesia's Simon Santoso, India's Kashyap Parupalli and even world's seed no.3 Chen Long to the finals.
Compared to the last game with Lin Dan in 2008's olympics with a complete defeat of 8-21 and 12-21 that clearly wasn't done with his full potential, Lee Chong Wei has impressed 28 millions Malaysians plus international media with an amazing game by taking down the first round with 21-15, 10-21 and 19-21. ESPN commentator praised Chong Wei "Skills win you medals, but attitude wins hearts". Don't forget, he played under a severe leg injury with a 19-21 result, though teeth-gritting but worth saluting. In fact, during an interview with CCTV, Lee Chong Wei revealed that for his every game in the Olympics, he has taken pain-killer to prevent his injuries from recurring. That time when he sat down on the court after having defeated, I thought he was crying in disappointment. No. He was actually resting because his leg was starting to ache. If Olympics has the best Olympian award, I think he deserves it.
Put aside his glory and reputation, I particularly love how sports, not just Olympics, brings the whole nation together. Being a multi-racial country, unity has always been a highly debated issue. For instance, recently with the whole "Malay asking Chinese to go back China" thingy had put more threat towards the aim of uniting people of different races. Yet when it comes to sports, it's like a voluntary action when people put down their weapons and armors, fighting for the same reason. It's the moment when people reveal the bright side of themselves! No one becomes hostile towards anyone. Instead of the hostility, friendliness is what we sense between every Malaysian even between strangers! Whenever Lee Chong Wei scores or loses, we don't just feel the joy of victory, but also the sense of pride for being a Malaysian. It works 1000000 times more effectively than standing in the field singing the national anthem everyday! In fact, it makes you want to stand up and sing for the national anthem your own. On the international view, I too, love how the Olympics acted as a reliever to the multiple world crisis, notably the economic crisis that hit Europe real hard.
Now I wish I could have done better in sports and make Malaysia proud but no, I'm not the one. Put that aside, I also wish the government would be aware of the issue of Malaysia talents getting dried out. Instead of focusing how to make them richer and powerful, I hope they could put more attention into this because honestly, like my mum said, unlike China who wins in almost everything they joined, Lee Chong Wei was pressured when the whole nation only put their hopes on him for the whole Olympics.
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