(LCW) A Victory Bigger than a Gold Medal

Before I begin,  let me start off with this. This will not be some post that is to make you feel better. This is not some post to show where our Dato' Lee went wrong. I am not going to say "at least he beat Lin Dan"  or " He won three silver medals and that is a feat".  I will not sugar coat the situation. After all the essence of this blog is to tell the truth graciously. If I do not stay true to that then I have missed the point of this whole post in itself.

There, our hero. Our pride. Among many other heroes of Malaysia.

Let's not deny the grief of the loss. Let's not deny that it sucks. Dato' Lee Chong Wei, we empathize with you and even then we do not fully understand how you feel. It sucks that the gold medal was so close within your reach. It hurts that you were so apologetic and that you felt you let the nation down (I am not assuming anything) although you have done so much more for the country. The fact that u apologize even then.

So yes reality kicks in. But if you may allow me in all humility to have this opportunity to encourage you and shift your focus to what I see and probably what you are all seeing. I am just perhaps helping to reaffirm what I would have faith that the majority of Malaysia is thinking.... Except some news portals Hahaha. I kid.

As I say this, though this post is heavily focused on Dato' Lee Chong Wei. The message is the same for all the athletes out there who have pressed on. Pandalela, Goh Liu Ying, Chan Peng Soon, Cheong Jun Hoong, V Shem, Wee Kiong, Amsyar Azman, and all who I definitely missed as I cannot remember that many names. You all who made such an achievement many desired innately.

Notice that he has won our hearts? 

You have seen it all over Facebook and Twitter.

The support that he has garnered was something. He was like the Naruto whom everyone believed in. So please do not say sorry no more. No we are sorry if we had given you that burden.

 They claimed that he was first in our hearts. He has done more than enough. We are proud of him regardless.
How much power LCW has to give us a reason to believe when let's be honest living in a country where to a certain extent desensitized to corruption because it just does not surprise us anymore.

 They knew what was the bigger picture although it was a silver. And they were proud of him for his resilience, perseverance, grit. That he took the mantle of being a Malaysian and carried us all together to Rio in spirit. 
We were one. In every mamak stalls, cafes, homes, restaurants, malls. All watching him and rooting for him.

 Indeed as our friend Yi Khen here mentioned, he has done the one thing more valuable. Which is created that unity. And we thank you for putting up such a fight.

I am not here to criticize the game nor analyze how you have lost or how you could have won. That is far from the focus of this post. I would like to bring forward the idea of something more precious than gold. And even though he brought home the silvers, it is something more precious than silvers. 

 I reiterate the point. He has won our hearts. That was the greater victory. Now please keep in mind that I am not denying that the loss stung all of us. But I am attempting to also add in aside from the pain the joy of what he has achieved. An achievement not many of us could.

 What does Velli malarey mean? It means silver flower =) Let me expand what does winning our hearts mean. You won our respect and love as our dear Jiva has pointed out. To us all, he already achieved the gold. He achieved it years ago. 

Hence, it was worth it. A honor to stand by your side LCW. You knew we were.

Isn't that what truly matters? Which is the matter of our hearts? The true gold medal in which it resides. It is when the one true identity ever emerges. That we are Malaysians.  It is not that we stop being our race as Chinese or whatever religion. Nor do we assimilate with other races in that sense. But it is by understanding what matters more that we are Malaysians. That while I may be a Chinese, it is not what solely defines me. What defines me is by knowing who I am and right now Malaysian that allows me to see the diversity not to be tolerated but celebrated and celebrated as one.

Even Nandos caught the drift.

My relief that they got the bigger picture. You see as Malaysians we have this idea of advocating this one Malaysia. We are to celebrate diversity not for diversity sake but for unity sake. And it is especially hard in this day and age where the rule is, in this individualistic society where self fulfillment is key but actually it is all self-entitlement, you believe whatever you want to believe and I will respect that as long as you do not impose tour values on me and let me do whatever I want. Through the Rio Olympics in which Malaysians are concerned, as far as I have observed through my limited sample of humans,  we have been able to transcend racial neutrality and achieved multicultural unity.

You see, many nations have that desire for oneness. Many try to achieve it. It is the hopes (I hope)  of every government who wants that. It is not easy. And here we have Dato' Lee Chong Wei who has done it. Where we came to realize what it means to be Malaysians. What defines us as Malaysians. It is not what they say on the tourism advertisements. When it truly comes to it, it is the simple things like in our rojak language, in our mamak culture, our nasi lemak for breakfast,  through the fact that we all cannot decide where to eat =P.... as well as through supporting our fellow Malaysian Dato' Lee Chong Wei for not giving up till the very end. Thank you so much. I do not think there is much left to express. Perhaps a hug for you would even suffice. But you truly did outperform yourself by not getting us the gold, but being the Gold ever since you started badminton. 

The matter of the heart is the heart of the matter. 

It is a great ability when someone is able to show us a world only the eyes of our hearts can see. It transcends the material ones of what society pushes. 

And who knows. Just letting it out there. Getting that silver may have pushed us to see that compared to getting the gold medal. I'm just saying. We do not need to debate that we would have seen it regardless of the gold or not. Because as the picture beside me here says. He will always be the champion in our hearts.