Dato' Dina Rizal with Voize Managing Editor Siva Chandran, at our office
We interview the passionate muticultural sports enthusiast, Dato’ Dina Rizal, about himself and his new project SportsUnite. The internet-savvy sportsman, who frequently interacts with youth, replies by email.
1. Hi Dato’, you have been organising youth sports events for around 30 years now. What has this meant for you, and do you ever tire of it?
A) Thanks Rachel for this interaction. My whole life revolves around sports ever since my childhood days in the 50s..I was active in football, badminton, cricket and hockey in my school days and later on in sec school, university focused on my first passion football where I played for school, university and later Hong Chin a Chinese football club in the Selangor Premier league
So was my family as a kid and now with my own family. We were all into sports including my wife. Hence when I started work in Nestle in 1978 and handled the Milo brand since 1980 until my retirement in 2003 and thereafter for the next 6 years on SportsUnite till now, sports has become second nature to me. MILO is promoted on a sports platform with a CSR focus on grassroots and junior sports development. I could emotionally relate to MILO’s core and sports values and this motivated me to give my best shot at the job.
My mindset about the wonder of sports in reaching out to children and parents bringing the simple joys into their lifes was further reinforced during my 23 yrs on the MILO brand.I grew to respect the CSR vision of Nestle via MILO in enriching the lives of children all over the country with various junior sports programs, competitions, coaching clinics and the ever popular MILO sampling van. These are huge investments MILO has made every year which I will not deny helped build consumer franchise but equally important projected Nestle-MILO’s image as a responsible corporate citizen.
The 30 yrs organizing and sponsoring junior sports events relating to so many children of all walks of life and races throughout the country has certainly enriched my life and brought me immense joy, happiness and contentment.
One of the best pleasures I get is when I see kids of different races having a great time playing together, developing new friendships, improving their playing skills with parents cheering them on. I can relate to the child in me always. I believe we all have a child in our hearts and react positively when we see joyous moments like this.
Never grew tired Rachel. Each event is a new experience and a new inspiration for me. Once u enjoy what you are doing feeling tired is never an issue. You just want to do more of it. At my age now approaching 60 physical exhaustion once in while creeps in but I learn to pace and stay fit and healthy .Meeting and interacting with new kids, parents and friends in sports makes me happy. Often I smile inside when parents tell us how happy they are to see their kids enjoying MILO and SportsUnite events that has helped the kids give up bad habits, take up sports now and make new friends. Most parents never talk about sports affecting kids studies. I believe parents share the maxim “Healthy body builds a healthy mind and vice versa.”
2. What was the best thing in your 27 years of being with MILO?
A) So many memorable moments Rachel. As I mentioned earlier seeing children full of enthusiasm, competitive spirit and energy taking part in MILO events with good moral support from parents and going home with pleasant memories gives me so much joy.
It was in these Milo events that I learnt the spirit and value of unity through sports that helped us create SportsUnite after my retirement.
The most memorable event that will stay in my mind forever is during the Finals of the 1992 Thomas Cup at the Stadium Negara between Msia and Indonesia. Milo was a co-sponsor of this event. Msia won the Thomas Cup after 25yrs. It was truly a magic moment. The whole nation stood still celebrate the joy of victory.
Tun Siti Hasmah was then the patron of BAM. The winning point was scored by our doubles pair Cheah Soon Kit and Soo Beng Kiang. Tun Siti hugged these 2 players who were all soaked in sweat and she cried tears of joy which was captured on TV. This was an amazing moment to me of the power of sports in uniting us all in one spirit and soul.
I was close by to the action and could not hold back my tears too.
3. What usually encourages youth to participate in sports? Is it the money or glory, or something else?
A) I have often said that if you give a child half a chance he/she just wants to play and have fun with friends. It’s almost a legal right of every child to play which we as adults and over concerned parents are depriving them of.
The same with our youth with some much energy and enthusiasm they need healthy outlets to express themselves especially build camaraderie with peers and make new friends through sports. I am talking about recreational sports that kids and teens want to hang out and have fun. The mushrooming of futsal centres and mini sports complexes in urban cities well patronized by sports enthusiasts tells us a lot about this crave to play sports if given half a chance. All concerned parties i.e. MoE, Ministry of Youth and Sports, local councils, housing developers, private sector and concerned citizens must make it an important point to provide the space for youth to express themselves. We often hear youth saying “I need space and some freedom to do my own thing” If sports facilities are in abundance and more importantly well managed then the sport culture will flourish .This is a very healthy phenomenon.
My main concern is giving the millions of kids and teens in primary, secondary schools and institutions of higher learning enough play time to interact and stay healthy. Our challenge is to create conducive environments for sports at grassroots to flourish. We need more pepper and less paper, less rhetoric and more action from policy and decision makers.
The pursuit of money and glory is confined to the cream of the crop. The champions who have brought immense honor to themselves and country.
This is a very small %. Yes they are good role models that can inspire our young
I am not inclined to think that this pursuit of money and glory is in the minds of our masses of youths. They just want to have good time playing and enjoying sports with friends in conducive environments and a few of them will be discovered and nurtured to be champions in the future.
4. What is Sports Unite all about? What are its objectives and how may one join it?
A) SportsUnite as the name suggest is about promoting unity through sports. Its about trying to rekindle the sports culture at grassroots. We are a very small club. Its been 6 yrs now. We organize small but meaningful junior sports events with the help of sponsors like MILO focusing on multi racial participation. Its a pre-requirement in all SportsUnite events for teams or doubles pairs in badminton, tennis or table tennis to comprises players of at least 2 races.
So far since 2004 we have organized some 100 over small events within the Klang valley.
I am grateful to the media for supporting what we do as we promote the unity message similar to today’s 1Malaysia.
I am inspired when my media friends encourage us to do more such events advising that this the way to go for Malaysian sports. With our limited means we have managed. Do hope opportunities and the means will arise for us to reach out to kids and parents in other states including Sabah and Sarawak. Most of our events are well participated. And parents are my best inspirations giving us moral support all the time to move forward with this humble vision.
You can get a good insight of SportsUnite at www.sportsunite.com.my
Following SportsUnite, amongst my close golf friends we created a simple charity idea called GolfUnite since Dec 08 where so far 3 events have been held on theme :Unite & Care as U Play” raising RM57,800 donated to 11 orphanages of different races.
Please see www.golfunite.com.my for more info.
We welcome new members of SportsUnite. The forms are in our website. There are no benefits to members .Basically we like members to turn volunteers to help us organize our SportsUnite events mostly held over weekends. Serving good time with kids and parents is a wonderful thing.
5. Are you an athlete yourself? How do you ‘chill out’ in your free time?
A) By now Rachel u will realize I am a hardcore sportsman. Can’t play football at my age now, but my 2 sons age 26 and 22 have taken from where I have left and my daughter,14, plays a very hard ball i.e. tenpin bowling. My wife is a hardcore badminton enthusiast.
I keep myself fit via 6-7 km walks at least 2-3 times a week at night in my neighbourhood and play quite a bit of golf. Occasionally with wife and children and friends a badminton game.
Hope you are also into sports Rachel ?
6. If there was something you would really like to see happening among youth, what would that be?
A) When you say youth Rachel I hope we are on the same page i.e. children from primary, sec schools and teens in Institutions of Higher Learning. It’s amazing we have critical mass of 5.5 million children in some 10,000 schools nationwide and another 1 million or so in universities/colleges.
I like to see youth going to school and universities enjoy carrying 2 bags everyday i.e. school/.college bag and sports bag where sports become a key component in the education curriculum. Where sports becomes second nature to our youth’s lifes.
Where we have a single stream school structure and the multi racial teams formed to represent schools, universities and colleges and later the nation.
We must dare to dream. It’s not wishful thinking. If there is a will there is a way. There has been much talk on some of the above but action must be forthcoming
Youth is wanting to see something productive happening. The longer the wait the sooner our youth will be waylaid and that will be sad.
Yours in sporting spirit,
Dina 3.11.09
