Essay on Malaysia: What has Najib done to Malaysian Soccer?

     Astro must be desperate. For two months since Ola Bola's release on 28th January, they have been flogging every single channel of theirs with promotional adverts, pestering their viewers to proceed with all haste, to the nearest local cinema and watch Ola Bola. If you happened to be viewing an English Channel, it will be in English. If you were watching a Chinese channel, the advert will be in both Mandarin and Cantonese. And if you were on a Malay Channel, the ad will be in Malay. I assume it will be the same in Tamil for Indian channels. 

     'A feast for your eyes' one celebrity boasted. 'A film all Malaysians must watch', said another. You know they are desperate when they have to invite female media personalities to comment on how good-looking the male actors of the film are. In the beginning, it was one or two celebrities urging viewers to watch the movie. Now, in March of 2016, all 200 of Malaysia's celebrities are out in force, pestering Astro's viewers to see Ola Bola. 

     That got me wondering, "Why is Astro so desperate to get people to watch Ola Bola?" I was unimpressed by the ads, nor am I a great fan of soccer. So I Googled Ola Bola on the Internet, and found the Wikipedia entry for it. Unsurprisingly, the underlying theme of Ola Bola was in actual fact, government propaganda. As usual.

     The plot of Ola Bola is simple: A sports journalist grows disillusioned and weary of working life in Malaysia, and wants to migrate overseas for a better future. But one day, she does some research on the haloed 1980 Malaysian Soccer Team, who qualified for the Summer Olympics of that year. Through her interviews with the stars of that distinguished team, she relives the glory days of Malaysia's past soccer champions. It also renews her belief in the nation, and by the end of the film, the sports journalist changes her plans about migrating overseas, and chooses to remain in Malaysia. 

     Pffft. Any one with half a brain can tell its propaganda. Why would any sensible Malaysian want to pay good money to watch propaganda? Though the fact Ola Bola was produced is an acknowledgement of how the Malaysian Government recognizes Malaysia's crop of human talent are very unhappy with working and living conditions in Malaysia, and Malaysia's future economic prospects. As such, thousands, if not millions of young Malaysian talent hold aspirations of migrating overseas to Singapore, Australia, and other developed nations, for a better future for themselves, and their children. 

     Of course, assembling a 1970s style carnival is not easy. The film’s cinematographer must also be commended for the scenes where they had to track the movement of the soccer ball as it whizzed all over the soccer pitch, along with the wide, sweeping panoramic shots of Malaysia’s lush green landscape. The human element of the film is very touching too. And each and every one of the actors and actresses in the movie displayed great heart.

      Indeed, there will be patriotic Malaysians who will go watch the film at local theaters, simply to show support for ‘Malaysian–made’ creative content. And there will be Malaysians who will do the ‘Malaysian Thing’. They will wait for the pirated DVD to come on sale at their local pasar malam, or night bazaar. Or they might download the pirated film from the Internet once it is available online. 

     Unfortunately, most Malaysians will remain stuck in traffic, over-worked in offices, and staying at home during the weekends to save money, as inflation in Malaysia is perpetually rising all the time. This is due to capital flight and loss of investor confidence from the 1MDB scandal and the fall in oil and commodity prices. As such, many Malaysians do not possess a shred of inclination to watch Ola Bola. 

     At most, if Malaysians really wanted to watch local soccer, they would watch local Malaysian clubs play each other, while enjoying a Teh Tarik at their local Mamak Stall. If Malaysians wanted to watch good soccer, they would stay at home and watch the EPL, Spanish La Liga, or Italian Serie A on the Astro Super-sports channels. If they wanted to fight the traffic and hassle KL is infamous for, and navigate through bustling crowds to pay good money for a movie ticket, they would rather watch Deadpool, or Ipman 3. 

     Coincidentally, my friend who works in Astro, recently told me Khazanah, the investment arm of the Malaysian government, owns a majority stake in Astro Shaw and Astro TV's parent company. Now that makes a lot of sense. Perhaps with falling oil prices, and declining market share to Perodua, Khazanah was faced with falling revenue from both Petronas and Proton. Looking for a solution, they tried to make up for the loss of revenue from Malaysia's huge pool of soccer fans, and assumed they might enjoy a soccer film celebrating Malaysia's haloed 1980 soccer team, produced by Astro Shaw. Sadly, it would appear Khazanah miscalculated the patriotism Malaysians held for their country. 

     Well, if even the attractive female media celebrities currently urging Astro TV's viewers to watch Ola Bola do not succeed in raising ticket sales of the film, Astro could always invite Dr M, and feature him on a promotional advert asking, since the days of Malaysia's haloed 1980 soccer champions, what has Najib done to Malaysian soccer since then? 

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