July 29, 2011
Malaysian Politics as well as Soccer: Yobbo culture
by Terence Netto@www.malaysiakini.com (July 28, 2011)
COMMENT The only completed visits to Malaysia by three English Premier league teams provided disconcerting reminders which sports occasions lend themselves only as simply to exhibitions of nastiness as well as tribalism than to some-more comely qualities, as George Orwell once cautioned in his writings.
The headlines which FIFA may sanction a Football Association of Malaysia because of a censure by Chelsea FC over a approach internal fans jeered their Israeli-born midfielder Yossi Benayoun will put a tighten upon destiny FAM plans to have a tip English clubs stopover in Kuala Lumpur upon their off-season tours to a Far East.
FIFA has done a fight opposite racism in soccer a major plank in their debate to promote a game. In new years, a universe soccer governing body has handed down complicated sanctions opposite clubs as well as countries which were deemed to have disregarded their strictures opposite racism.
Malaysian fans were reported in a British severe paper Guardian to have jeered each time Yossi Benayoun overwhelmed a round in a compare in in between Chelsea as well as Malaysia during a National Stadium in Bukit Jalil final week.
After a wide coverage given by wire headlines networks to Bersih proof upon Jul 9, most foreigners must be wondering whats with Malaysia these days. The wearing of yellow T-shirts is not allowed, peaceful demonstrations are! dishear tened as well as their organisers harassed, as well as now! soccer players from Israel who spin out for furloughed English Premier League clubs are not acquire in Malaysia.
YouTube video clip
Matters upon a sports front are some-more than a little awry where a image of Malaysians is concerned following a clip which was uploaded upon a video pity website YouTube.
It showed an situation which occurred during a training session of a furloughed Liverpool FC which was hold during a National Stadium in Bukit Jalil in preparation for a diversion opposite a Malaysian preference which was scheduled for Jul 16.
A internal air blower of Manchester United, wearing a No 10 jersey of a clubs star player, Wayne Rooney, was surrounded whilst sitting in a territory of a terraces occupied by fans of Liverpool wearing a frame of a Merseyside club.
The MU air blower was harangued to Buka, buka (Take off your shirt) by a yelling Liverpool-supporting mob.
Stadium stewards, in a seeming effort to mollify a Liverpool fans, swayed a MU air blower to take off his frame as well as put upon Liverpool colors. The fan, obviously shaken, acquiesced to taking off his MU jersey but ignored stewards suggestion which he go a full stretch in MU apostasy. Fortunately, a air blower came to no further mistreat than which to his self-respect as an MU loyalist.
The video clip of a incident, since being uploaded upon Jul 14, has toted up views in access of 660,000, enough to validate as an object of major interest upon a net.
This work of art of soccer tribalism puts Malaysian fans in a bad light. Coupled with a ! jeering of Yossi Benayoun, a incidents execute a fans as capable of a uglier forms of sports tribalism as well as anti-! Semitism .
Distinction blurred
Jew-phobia had not been a noted trait of Malaysians until a Yom Kippur fight in October 1973 when college as well as university students hold demonstrations during a United States Information Service as well as during a American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Since then anti-Semitism has been upon a rise in Malaysian society, particularly after a key of wire headlines TV in a 1990s, as a uglier goods of a Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands seized in a 1967 fight in a Middle East were beamed round a time in to homes.
But it was only in 1983 which a eminence in in between anti-Zionism as well as anti-Semitism became blurred in a public thoughts when a supervision caused a planned stopover in Kuala Lumpur by a New York Philharmonic Orchestra, underneath a baton of a renowned Zubin Mehta, to be cancelled.
A composition entitled Jewish Rhapsody was upon a orchestras repertoire for a KL performance. The supervision demanded which a object be dropped; a band refused as well as internal musical esthetes were deprived of their exemplary fix.
In a broader publics mind, a eminence in in between anti-Zionism, which is a political in front of opposite an imperialist ideology, as well as anti-Semitism, which is a racist stance, was blurred.
If a supervision could not have which eminence from approach back in 1983, a single cannot expect soccer louts scarcely three decades upon to appreciate a difference as well as thereby give up from jeering Yossi Benayoun in a colours of Chelsea FC.
Leave governing body out of sport
Now, which inability to have a eminence will price! a FAM a little vis--vis FIFA. This would be dismaying to Malaysias first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman, who was a pioneer of a FAM as well as a Asian Footbal! l Confed eration.
In 1974, as boss of a AFC, he stood opposite Arab vigour to ban Israel, a first member, from AFC, only as he had had progressing stood down vigour from a Peoples Republic of China to ban Taiwan, another first member, as a pre-condition of a comrade nations entrance in to a continental body.
In both instances, a Tunku was austere which sports should be free from politics. Otherwise, he held, there would not be much indicate to a formers pristine pursuit.
A saddened Tunku, a partner of competition generally football, lost a argument as well as was forced out of a AFC presidency.
On a evidence of Malaysian football fans behaviour in a compare opposite Chelsea, it could be pronounced which a Tunkus children have turn none a wiser for a sporting principles he strove to defend in his lifetime. The Tunkus present-day legatee, Razaleigh Hamzah, should rubbish no time in removing a debate to revitalise a Tunkus values upon a road.
No comments:
Post a Comment