After 'Ola Bola', Rafidah hopes younger generation will do better

PETALING JAYA: Former cabinet minister Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz (pic) hopes that the younger generation will “turn out better than those before them in every aspect”.  

She noticed that young Malaysians have a sense of belonging to the country, especially in view of the recent screening of the Ola Bola movie.  

According to Rafidah, they felt touched by the sentiments and emotions the story evoked.  

"Such that they empathise with whatever is happening around them, that they feel for the country and its future.  

"It is hoped that this sense of belonging will motivate our young to be better than those before them. I hope they do what it takes to be the Malaysians that the world can respect," she said on her Facebook Sunday.  

Rafidah said that though she had not watched Ola Bola, she lived in those glorious days.  

"I remember those nights when the family gathered around the radio to listen to every football match that our players participated in, because we were not at the venues where the games were played.  

"The commentators shared with us their own views and try their best to bring the games to our living rooms. We could only visualise the game through their commentaries and they were very good," she said.  

Rafidah said back then, players of all races made the country proud through the national team.  

"It was nation first and sports was something that brought cohesiveness among us.  

"We were not at all aware of different ancestry. Rafidah was just that as was Kam Woh and Jeya and Pak Bee, we were just the youths of the country," she said.  

She added that no one injected the lives of people with notions of “being different”.  

"It was blissful to have no hangups about our multiracial society. We had the same school uniforms for each school with our own school badges.  

"That nurtured the sense of belonging to the larger society, beyond our school later on in life," said Rafidah.