What does settling mean? It is when someone has become too comfortable with his or her situation and willingly compromises quality just to make his or her life easier.
This happened with the recent hoo-ha over the Malaysian contingent’s official attire for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The design for the attire lacked any sort of inspiration and the ceremony to unveil it too played a part in the unceremonious public reception.
For one, there weren’t any athletes to model the attire, with it being paraded on mannequins wearing weird-looking wigs instead.
Even local football clubs put more effort into their official attire presentation, often splurging to organise an over-the-top kit launch ceremony. To them, this is a big deal.
These kit launches are attended not only by the players and the coaching team but also highly anticipated by their fans and the media.
Symbolically, a new kit for the season means a fresh start as well as signifies progress in the competition.
Take the English Premier League for example; the champions for the previous season will be given the honour to adorn their kits with a gold patch for the new season. The same goes for the winner of the World Cup. New kits mean something.
Malaysian Olympics contingent chef de mission Datuk Hamidin Amin was in hot soup when he defended the new attire by saying there was no point in having nice attire and not winning medals during the competition.
Currently, no one is willing to take the blame. The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib cited sponsor budget limitations as a key reason for the underwhelming design.
“We are limited by what sponsors can provide within their budgets. Opting for premium designs would increase costs for the sponsors,” he said.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh clarified on X that the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) and the National Sports Council (MSN) had no control over the design.
My theory is that this was the result of the prevailing ‘asal boleh’ mentality by those who are given the responsibility to make decisions.
hile art is indeed subjective and beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, I think most people have the mental acuity to tell whether a design is acceptable or otherwise.
It is also important for those who have the unenviable task of approving designs to be someone who have high standards and know what they are doing.
Not too long ago, there was a similar commotion over the Visit Malaysia 2020 campaign logo.
The logo came under fire due to the appalling design which included uneven font sizes and retro-looking illustrations. It was bad. Even a schoolchild would have done a better job.
Then Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said the logo was designed by the ministry’s in-house team and that he trusted their designs, adding that criticism “is normal”.
“I can’t be putting a serious logo. This is tourism and it’s supposed to be fun,” he said.
This sparked a meme which went viral at the time, poking fun at the process of the logo creation where the government supposedly paid RM15,000 to a contractor for the logo.
The job was then subcontracted multiple times, with each party pocketing a hefty sum to the point that the job was given to a kid, paying him only RM10, resulting in the laughable Visit Malaysia 2020 logo.
While there’s humour, with the level of incompetency that we are accustomed to, the situation depicted in the comic strip might not be too far from reality.
The takeaway from this is that government officials as well as those in power must buck up and take the initiative to ensure that certain qualities must be met in their work.
This means to never settle for less than the acceptable quality. If they are unsure of the standards which they should be observing, be open to opinions and suggestions.
What this also means is that integrity must be preserved. The Visit Malaysia 2020 logo blunder happened during Barisan Nasional’s time. The perception that the government was knee-deep in nepotistic practices did not help ease public outcry.
Regardless, it takes multiple levels of incompetence to arrive at the Olympics attire gaffe. Those who let it slip should be answerable to the public.
Malaysia’s athletes and Malaysians in general deserve better.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune.
