The finest Malaysian treasure: Where did you go in 2022 to find it?
Having put out tens of thousands of stories over the past year, we asked ourselves what precious Malaysian quality stood out from the news we reported.
Here’s what we found.
In sport, we marvelled at Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan– two young ladies as different as they can possibly come – uniting to play their hearts out in one of our most cherished sports, badminton.
Unheard of by most even within the country, the duo, whose on-court chemistry set the nation alight, unexpectedly bagged a Commonwealth women’s doubles gold medal in August.
They went on to create an even bigger shock at the French Open two months later, beating the World No. 3 pair, Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara, in a thrilling three-setter.
Even more astonishing was the fact that Tan had only just recovered from what looked like a serious knee injury sustained at the Japan Open a month earlier, when she was forced to leave the court in a wheelchair.
While sport has an inherent capacity to showcase heroes, politics usually churns out villains, and in 2022, Malaysian politics seemed to unearth more than its fair share of the latter.
Throughout the year, politicians appeared hell-bent on dividing the nation, usually along racial and religious lines.
As the 15th general election drew closer, the country’s political landscape became increasingly fragmented, with clear divisions emerging – some premised on racial and religious lines, others on regional issues.
Malaysia ended up being quartered. In the Peninsular, the Perikatan Nasional coalition pushed an Islam-centric agenda to counter their opponents’ more inclusive agenda.
Not wanting any part of it, politicians from Sabah and Sarawak distanced themselves from both, each prioritising their peoples’ own needs instead.
Meanwhile, deep-seated prejudices between the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) remained firmly entrenched, even as Umno itself appeared time and again to be on the brink of civil war.
All that built up to the most polarised general election the country has ever seen, with the results showing a nation hopelessly divided.
Faced with the prospect of a hung parliament, the real Malaysia unexpectedly appeared out of the blue.
To the palpable relief of right-thinking Malaysians, longtime arch enemies PH and BN managed to set aside their differences, and together reached out to form a unity government with the majority of East Malaysian MPs.
Led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the new government promises to uphold core values of moderation and inclusiveness, which at one time appeared to have been almost lost to our multi-racial, multi-religious country.
Just as in the previous year, 2022 ended in an unexpected tragedy. The devastating Batang Kali landslide which took place on December 16 took as many as 31 lives. Thankfully, 61 others survived.
The search and rescue team, made up mostly of Malay personnel, toiled for nine consecutive days in difficult weather conditions – sweat intermingled with tears – until every one of the 92 victims, almost all of whom were from the Chinese community, was accounted for.
Touched by their efforts, family members of the victims were filled with gratitude and effusive in their praise.
Meanwhile, Malaysians of every race and creed up and down the country, both in person and on social media, offered prayers of thanksgiving for those who were saved, mourned those who were lost and condoled with their families.
Amid the heart-wrenching scenes, the Batang Kali tragedy proved that, deep down, Malaysians have always been truly united.
An eventful year of news reporting uncovered what we believe is the Finest Malaysian Treasure: UNITY.
Let’s resolve to build on that unity in 2023 and beyond.
Happy New Year!