THEY say the true value of beauty lies in eyes of the beholder. Or sports and politics are like oil and water – both cannot mix.
But with Malaysia often boasting itself as a melting pot of multiple civilisations, it is understandable for racial politics to rear its ugly head in the choice of the Paris Olympic 2024 official opening ceremony attire for the national contingent.
“Our Paris Olympics baju looks like Emirates Airlines crew. Or posh Malay wedding baju. Doesn’t reflect multi-racial Malaysia,” penned former environmental editor of The Star Andrew Sia with reference to Yeoh revelation of Rizman Ruzaini’s creation on his Facebook page.
“The attire is called The Malaya. OK forget about Indians & Chinese but not East Malaysia. Why did Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh approve this? Or did someone higher up want this?”
Interestingly, Sia who is now a Malaysiakini columnist is not alone in voicing such regret.
As poster Olympic Malaysia 🇲🇾🥇(@olympicmas) hailed the Baju Melayu Johor and Baju Kurung Pahang on the X platform as “honouring our greatest traditions and culture”, one commenter’s instant reaction is ‘no diversity, only one culture here” while some tend to regard the attire as “baju raya”.
In all fairness, however, the critics this time around are pale in comparison from the public furore over the official games jersey for Malaysian athletes till the Olympic Council Malaysia (OCM) was prompted to come out with a ‘fiercer’ tiger-stripe design.
Honouring our greatest traditions and culture, Malaysian athletes will stride into the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics wearing garments designed by Rizman Ruzaini. pic.twitter.com/q7KHo6fJeK
— Olympic Malaysia 🇲🇾🥇 (@olympicmas) July 26, 2024
Elaborating further, some commenters questioned the missing “Bornean motifs” (except for diver Bertrand Rhodict who was accorded the honour to be the flag bearer) with one netizen bringing to the attention of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that “this is discrimination”.
One commenter pointed to Team Indonesia which rotates costumes which represent different ethnics in every Olympics series. This can perhaps be food for thought for OCM in future Olympic editions.
Another took a pot shot at the political fraternity – in particular over-nationalistic politicians – who accused organisers of the George Town Festival 2024 for ‘memorycide’ after a promotional video of the event had omitted Penang’s Malay heritage.
Now is pay-back time, he seemed to have insinuated– July 27, 2024
Images credit: Olympic Malaysia 🇲🇾🥇(@olympicmas)/Twitter
