The following is a letter by Mr Rafiz Mohyi Hapipi sent to the New Paper in response to its report, “A new generation”.
Dear Siang Yee and NP Sports Editors,
I wish to raise a response to your article featured on page 38 of The New Paper on Sunday, 25 April 2010 in the Sports Section, sub-section “Singapore at Large”.
Your article begins with a header: A NEW GENERATION in caps. Following which a byline: “More and more youths are defying tradition and taking part in various sports that are not normally associated with their race.”
At first glance, I thought this report was a build up to the upcoming YOG. I was drawn then to the names bolded in red across the page spread. I saw names such as Muhammad Danial Zheng Yi, Seth Han Xiang Chou and Haafizh Mohd Noor. It does seem that the issue here is more about ethnicity than sports.
Reading on, this line captured my attention: “So what is making these young atheletes challenge convention and defy tradition?”
The statement really made me think and I began to question: Is this true? What do we mean by tradition here? What is the relevance of race here?
So you highlighted that Rahman Noor was the last bowler to wear Singapore colours in the 1980s to early 1990s. Isn’t a decade of representing Singapore worthy enough to be accorded the credit of contributing to the tradition, if not starting it? Mardan Mamat defied all odds with his successes in the game of golf which is a ball game that requires intense focus, just like bowling.
I’m not too familiar with bowling but surely, for badminton, the tradition began decades ago. In the early 1990s, 1992 to be exact, the shuttlers representing Singapore at the Summer Olympics were Zarinah Abdullah, Abdul Hamid Khan and Donald Koh. At the1996 summer Olympics, Zarinah was the only representative for badminton. Hamid Khan’s son, Muhammad Imran Khan, is a featured prodigy for badminton in 2008. In another racket game, squash, Zainal Abidin was most exceptional through the 1980s. Ismail Marjan is another name to be cited if the local badminton scene is to be mentioned. Across the causeway, through the 1980s to the 1990s, the Sidek brothers, were phenomenal worldwide.
Contrasting your article with the facts as presented above truly puzzled me. This is especially when trying to comprehend the intent behind the sports feature associating youth and race with the choices of sports. In my mind, the question, ”Why was it that the 1980s and 1990s, the local sports scene were colourful with representation across all ethnic groups, even at the highest level?” kept appearing.
To think about it, Singapore’s Malay and Indian population is small to begin with. Additionally, the cost of participating in sports is not all the same. Some sports activities, even in leisure, cost more than others.
Therefore, is race really the issue here? I doubt so.
However, associating youth, sports and race together definitely is a demonstration of a mental model that is unable to look at life events beyond the racial lens.
With regards,
Rafiz Mohyi Hapipi
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Well said Rafiz. Kudos!
Perhaps Friend Computer would like to unleash the Sedition Act Orbital Cannon.
We are all Singaporeans. if we start defining ourselves by our race, I might as well try to migrate my ass off to China.(A place which I had never step foot on before)
Our official propaganda media can please stop talking about race….
Well, it’s just that there are segments in our population who believes in racial hypocracy, so we should not be surprised when certain reports like to emphasis on racial profiles for the cause of certain successes or failures.
Take for example, from http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/04/25/台湾学者看新加坡司法制度/
There is a poster who commented, to kick out all non-Chinese and leave Singapore to the Chinese. And yet no one seem to berate this poster on his/her racist opinion.
Seems, many people equate Singapore as Chinese and often ignore the rights of the non-Chinese.
- Ravi, Thanks.
- Agents Provocateur,
I don’t quite understand your statement. I find it strange that the Sedition Act has to even be mentioned here. I am concerned as is may reflect how much that we have been conditioned to embrace suspicion as part of life’s routines.
I do not think Siang Yee (the original author) has had overt intention to play up the race issue indiscriminately. Although I thought the background work to his article was poorly done such that he missed out the obvious which I attempted to highlight. I believe, if there was a bit more considerations to the facts in sports history, the author would likely to have skipped using race as a factor altogether when discussing Youth and Sports.
I think affirmations, contestations and corrections are all legitimate contributions that will help us mature insightfully over time. If our our mental model is fused with suspicions, we might end up nurturing the Authoritarian Personality in ourselves (Theodore Adorno) . When the day comes that we live by a personality that is authoritarian, our thoughts and actions will reflect that of; ’ To Authority we Bow, As Authority we Subjugate’ without ever feeling the need to exercise ethical reasoning. By then, suspicions would likely have engulf our hearts and minds such that we lose our humanity.
Regards,
Rafiz Mohyi Hapipi
must be an article written by a junior reporter, and to fill an otherwise empty page, when there is no stories. Also a very lazy set of Sports editors who didnt go thru the facts.
They were just trying to put the rise of a new generation of sportsmen, but tieing it to race is just too tiring.
this is the state of our journalism, not so much political propaganda.
@Fabian: I wont link this TNP article, which i just thought was a very lazy piece from the Sports Desk, to the bigger issue of race.
But to your point, unfortuntaely, while we talk about multiracialism etc etc in Singapore, we are one of few countries in the world where we are constantly reminded of our differences – in our ICs, in national day speeches, in military camps, in schools. You dont need your newspapers to propagate the “propaganda”, as you put it.
Every year, they remind us that if the govt doesnt keep the calm, we’ll be at each other’s necks.
oh, and in China, there’s bigger things to think about rather than race. :-)
Thank you, Mr Rafiz
Valid points raised in your article. I do hope your letter would be published. I didn’t realise that the sports you play are closely related to race – maybe TNP thinks the Malays should only play Sepaktakraw?
malays are still the best footballers… bhaiis are the best hockey..the chinese without a doubt the best basketballers if they are tall enough…
Maybe they are coming up with a new HDB like model…especially with the nothing much and don’t know what to do ministers all getting involved in sports.
Perhaps, a new ethnic model is required to appease the populace with such idea.
Or maybe the NP writer is just an idiot…who does not know much sports but text book academic results.
Arhh, I am quite surprised that the coaches allowed this idiot to ask such questions to these young sports talents.
I hope they vet, just fools . So that sports person do not have such an idea in their mind. I know most professional sports people will agree with me.
Well said Rafiz. Kudos!