I'm not in the mood to write an original piece. So I edited an article written by Francis Siah for Malaysiakini.
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Stop dishing out datukship to 'kids'
First, it was Nicole David. I was really shocked when 24-year-old Nicole was awarded the datukship last month. Why? No doubt she’s the world squash champion but she’s only a ‘kid’ and since when did we start giving out datukships (originally meant for senior, deserving citizens) to school kids?
These are young people only in their twenties - and to award them the datukships - whatever for? What is happening these days? Surely, there are other more appropriate and more useful rewards or incentives we can offer our young sportsmen and sportswomen.
I always think of a datuk as an older person, someone highly revered (even idolised or feared perhaps) and who has contributed immensely to the state and nation. A datukship used to be awarded to those holding high public offices such as governors, ministers, top civil servants and prominent philanthropists. It will be better if the number is kept small to uphold the dignity, quality and value of the award.
But to award the datukship to Nicole David and Lee Chong Wei is silly, awkward and un-chief minister-like. I describe them as ‘kids’ because they are viewed as such when weighed against the title which is normally given to senior citizens.
Guan Eng’s reason that “Chong Wei was being honoured because he had done not only Penang but also Malaysia proud with his achievement as the first Penangite to win a silver medal at the world’s biggest sports event” does not hold up for the datukship at all.
Hey, Yap Kim Hock and Cheah Soon Kit also brought the silver medal home from the 1996 Atlanta Games. And what about Jalani and Razif Sidek. They won Malaysia’s first Olympic medal, albeit only a bronze, in Barcelona in 1992. They should all be made datuks too, if Guan Eng’s reasoning is to be taken as a yardstick.
Then what about our other sporting greats like Rabuan Pit, formerly Asia’s fastest man, former Mr Universe Soloman Ismanto, or our football legends like the late ‘Spiderman’ R Arumugam and Santokh Singh - why were they not awarded the datukship? Indeed, there is a long list of sportsmen and sportswomen who had also brought glory and honour to the nation too.
We can appreciate that Guan Eng is a young chief minister (I consider those below 50 young lah) and he intends to thrive on doing things differently, which is well and good. But this awarding of the datukship to ‘kids’ is definitely not well and good and the young chief minister has to be advised as such.
In future, Guan Eng should consider awarding permanent scholarships from the Penang government to the state’s high achievers in sports.
For example, Nicole or Chong Wei could be given scholarships to further their studies, say in sports science at USM or overseas, when they retire from the sporting arena. That would be a more appropriate reward from the state government than the datukship.
It ain’t so comforting and it will be even embarrassing to hear RTM’s Hasbullah Awang commenting on Chong Wei when he next steps onto the badminton court, “Oh, Datuk Lee tersungkur ke lantai gelanggang dan tumbang di tangan Lin Dan."Thanks to CM Lim Guan Eng, Lin Dan has created history by taking his first Malaysian Datuk scalp - he floored and defeated Datuk Lee Chong Wei.
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