For years skeptics and cynics have sneered at the national slogan, Malaysia Boleh’.
Every failure or mediocre performance by Malaysians in all fields would inevitably be associated sarcastically with ‘Malaysia Boleh’ as critics reveled in reminding everyone that we are way behind many nations in our achievements.
Sadly these are people who only chose to look at the clouds while ignoring the sun – to them nothing is right in the country.
While it cannot be denied that a lot of things are not right in Malaysia, it also cannot be denied that many things are right in our nation too.
On September 26 St Joseph’s School Marching Band proved that it is not all gloom and doom in Malaysia by springing a pleasant surprise upstaging about 200 other top high school bands from throughout the world to win US Bands Yamaha Cup in New York.
Perhaps many Malaysians have not quite digest the enormity of that achievement and may never will.
To them it could be just another school band competition – a notable achievement but well school level.
Yes it was a school marching band competition but it was a gathering of the best school bands in the world.
These kids from SJS are no ‘jaguh kampung’ they are champions of a world renowned competition in every category of the competition.
However, while their triumph is something all Malaysians especially Sarawakians can vicariously feel proud of, what is more inspiring is that it proved that we can produce international champions if we put our mind to it.
SJS Marching Band is not the first international champion Malaysia produced.
Before them we have the no.1 World ranking badminton player for quite a while in Datuk Lee Chong Wei and without that the greatest women squash player in the world Nicol David who holds the seemingly unbeatable record of remaining the top ranked player for more than nine years.
Sarawak also produces the only Olympic Games medalist outside badminton in Pandelela Rinong who won the bronze in London.
Their achievements are something Malaysians should be proud of but the triumph of the boys and girls of SJS in the US Bands Yamaha Cup is many ways more remarkable.
While not taking away the efforts of their parents, coaches, back-up personnel in encouraging and training them into international champions the likes of Chong Wei, Nicol and Pandelela are blessed with individual talents that allowed them to win world class tournaments and competition.
The SJS Marching Band on the other hand comprises dozens of boys and girls wielded together by their band director June Ling with the support of the state and federal governments, corporate sponsors and a team of international experts led by Jonathan Fox .
Their road to the championship was an arduous journey of sacrifice, discipline and determination and the people who arguably played the biggest role in their eventual triumph were their parents led by the bands Parents Association president Zuraimi Sabki.
As we celebrate their victory, we must also celebrate the fact that the band is a product of multi-racial collaboration and a shining example of Sarawak’s racial harmony.
The band’s triumph in the championship is also Sarawak’s triumph in racial harmony and unity.