I would not normally write sport story in this blog (not that am not a sport person) but this great feat by Datuk Nicole David is too big to ignore or brush aside. I watched the live telecast from Rotterdam last week and witnessed how Nicole pummeled world no 2 Jenny Duncalf into submission in straight sets 11-2, 11-5 and 11-0. Awesome it was! That was Nicole's 6th World title.(2005- Hong Kong, 2006- Belfast, 2008- Manchester, 2009- Amsterdam, 2010- Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 2011- Rotterdam).
This extraordinary achievement surpassed a 5th World Title jointly held by her and her mentor, Aussie Sarah FitzGerald. In all Nicole had amassed 56 WISPA titles and still gunning for Sarah's 62 to seal her reputation as the greatest squash player the World has ever seen!
When the National Anthem was played at the prize giving ceremony I got goose bumps in my TV room, and, admittedly and unashamedly, nearly shed tears to see this great Malaysian lady with her lips syncing, indicating that she was singing in tune with her beloved Country National Anthem.
Never mind there was no Malaysian VVIP cheering her on, except her parents, in the boisterous crowd in this Dutch country. Wish that the Sports Minister was there to support her and thereafter basking in glory celebrating her feat. This is quite unusual, because we did witness in the past that VVIPs will congregate to lend support to our athletes in lesser sports and in lesser importance/ tournament but probably, this squash final in Rotterdam was involving "different ethnic" personality, I dont know, you tell me! Or were that our VVIPs too ignorant to differentiate the significance of Nicole's world class act, a champion in squash for the 6th time amongst 6 billion earth citizens!
Never mind Nicole, we are all for you.
Training in jungle warfare as a young officer, to defend my country and my state of Sarawak
And in sports, among others, I played rugby for my Police nation and State
Exposed to scenes like this one during my tour of duty as an investigating officer in the Force is common sight
Taken during PRS's 5th Anniversary Dinner
I've just stumbled into your site. Impressed by your good command of English and your profile. I have the same background of rural poverty and tough experience in life. But then life is the sum total of all our experiences and we are richer with every experience we encounter.
ReplyDeleteI came across the following comments in another blog and am interested in the views of others on them (three comments):
"The Malays belong to the same Large Family of Malays or Rumpun Melayu as the Orang Asli of the Peninsula and the Bumiputeras (natives) of Sabah and Sarawak.
The Constitution spells out the definition of Malays in Malaysia. Habitually speaking the Malay language, practicing the Islamic religion, the Malay customs and traditions are the key factors. Language experts (linguists) have determined that there is also a Large Family of the Malay Language, totaling over 1,200 in all.
The books "The Malay Civilization" and "Tamadun Alam Melayu" published by the Historical Society of Malaysia, provide a broader classification of the Malays, which include the Orang Aslis and the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak. The books say that the Malays originated in the Malay Archipelago or Gugusan Pulau Pulau Melayu, to which Semenanjong Tanah Melayu, Sabah and Sarawak belong, over 7,000 years ago. They cultivated padi and had the rice-eating culture even before the mainland Chinese.
The Malays have been in and out of the islands within the Archipelago, including the Malay Peninsula and the island of Borneo, and outwards to Madagascar, Australia, New Zealand, Indo-China, Taiwan, the Malayo Polynesian and Pacific Islands up to Hawai, earlier with their "perahu" fitted with outriggers, later in multi-tiered ships the size of the ancient Roman galleons. They had remarkable ship building and navigational skills which were noted in the historical records of China.
The terms Proto-Malays (Orang Asli), Deutero Malays (the Constitutional Malays, Bumiputeras or natives of Sabah and Sarawak, Indonesians and others), Malayo-Polynesians and Austronesians refer to the same “Large Family of Malays” comprising some 350 million people. The classification was done scientifically by experts in the relevant fields, based on language, physical characteristics, blood types, DNA etc.
Pendatang refers to those who were brought in by the British who they called "coolies" to work in the tin mines, rubber and pepper plantations and in railway construction beginning from the late 19th Century. And those others who came not as coolies.
The Bumiputeras (natives) of Sabah and Sarawak and the Orang Asli of the Peninsula have a right to acknowledge or not that they belong to the same Large Family of Malays or Rumpun Melayu. But it should be noted that differences in religion do not preclude them from being of the Rumpun Melayu stock. After all, the Muslim Malays were largely Hindu in religion or animistic before the advent of Islam in this region in the 13th Century.
THE MALAY LANGUAGE FAMILY –
ReplyDeleteFrom the book, "The Malay Civilization", published by the Historical Society of Malaysia, 2007:
Various methods have been used to identify races, including languages, physical characteristics, blood types and DNA. These have been done over the centuries by experts in languages (linguists), the study of mankind (anthropologists), the study of ancient remains (archaeologists), and other scientists.
The Malay Language Family spoken in the Malay Archipelago or Gugusan Pulau Pulau Melayu, and beyond, are spoken by about 350 million people. There are as many as 1,200 languages in the Malay (Austronesian) language family, making it the 2nd largest language family in the world. The Malay languages account for 22% of the languages of mankind.
The dialects are more numerous still. The existence of so many dialects is one of the lively characteristics of the Malay civilization. Dialects share more than 80% basic vocabularies with one another thus making them more intelligible.
The scientists have studied the languages of the Malay Archipelago since the time of the British Captain Cook's voyages to the Pacific Ocean. Since then the experts have listed out the number of Malay Languages in some of the areas where Malay is spoken, as follows:
Malay Peninsula: 1 (+4 Aboriginal Malayan languages)
Borneo: 153
Phipippine Islands: 160
Sulawesi: 114
Sumatra Island: 22
Java Island: 3
Taiwan Island: 23
Madagascar Island: 11
Here are examples of the words that have basic similarities in Malay, Tagalog (Filipino), Fijian, Samoan, etc - see if the native language you speak have them:
dua, empat, lima, enam, mata, jalan, pandan, nior. There are of course so many others.
It's up to you to accept or not whether you belong to the same Large Family of Malays or Rumpun Melayu based on the similarities in your native language, physical characteristics etc. But the research and studies explained in the book stated above have been carried out scientifically by scores of experts in the relevant fields since the 19th century, even earlier, as Captain Cook brought a scientist who studied the languages of the Polynesian islands.
"Why the term Family of Malays (Keluarga Besar Melayu or Rumpun Melayu) is used –
ReplyDeleteThe author explains that the racial family that occupies this area called the Malay Archipelago and beyond is a very large one and each group within the family is known by its own ethnic name, such as Achinese, Bugis, Chamorro, Dayak, Ifugao, Kadazan, Maori, Merina etc and, Malay is one, too.
The Malays of the Malay Peninsula were the first people of the large family, and of Southeast Asia, to be met by the Europeans when they arrived in the East, by sea. The Europeans were Portuguese, the year was 1509 and the place was Malacca. Thus, Malay was entered in the European vocabulary as the name of the race of people in the Malay Archipelago. They have similarities with those who have gone beyond, as far away as Madagascar, Malayo-Polynesia, Indo-China, Taiwan, Hawai, etc.
The book chose the term Malay to refer to the large family group (instead of Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian) for ease of reference. It said, “After all, the Polynesians, Micronesians and Madagascans all originated in the Malay Archipelago”.
Note also that for centuries this region from the Isthmus of Kra (now partly under Thailand and partly under Myanmar) through the land called the Malay Peninsula, Sabah, Sarawak, Kalimantan and all the islands, including the 13,000 islands of Indonesia and the 7,000 islands of the Philippines, have been known the world over as the Malay Archipelago. Further down south, one group of islands have also for centuries been known as Malayo-Polynesia.
The Indonesians (population of 250 million) have accepted their Malay stock. The Filipinos (population of 80 million) even call their nationalist fighter, Jose Rizal, “a great Malay”; a famous book on him carries the title “Pride of the Malay Race”. The terms Malay, Malayan, Indonesian, Austronesian and Malayo-Polynesian have often been used interchangeably by writers and scholars alike to refer to the people of this region."