KL2017 Sea Games: Let’s ‘Rise Together’

The SEA Games is bigger than any one person. It is about a country coming together to showcase what they have on the regional stage.

COMMENT

By Khairy Jamaluddin

I refer to Mariam Mokhtar’s op-ed published in Free Malaysia Today this morning.

Firstly, given Mariam’s well-known anti-government slant, I can’t think of a scenario where Mariam would have considered this a successful SEA Games.

Her article involved a smattering of selected issues, most of which have been overcome and dealt with, to paint a very untrue picture that the SEA Games had failed. And one she hopes for.

The SEA Games is bigger than any one person. It is about a country coming together to showcase what they have on the regional stage.

Any multi-sports event is bound to have its issues. What matters is how you deal with it. I’m proud to say that we’ve responded to most issues promptly and decisively.

This has been acknowledged across the board. The former Indonesian Sports Minister said this was the best SEA Games he had been to. Many athletes and officials have echoed that sentiment.

Locally, the SEA Games has roused the nation. It has filled many, many venues. It has brought people together. It has inspired people. It has set the stage for further sporting success.

The SEA Games is a developmental games where we unearth future talent. The likes of Nicol David and Lee Chong Wei aren’t here.

Instead, we have Sivasangari Subramaniam and Goh Jin Wei, the Next Big Things in the sport. We’ve got Aaliyah Yoong, all of 14 years old. Abraham Eng, in tears at winning Silver and not Gold, is 15 years old. These are the faces of the SEA Games.

The developmental angle to the games hasn’t held back public interest. When we first opened up the sale of tickets to the public, netball and basketball were sold out within the first day.

Track cycling and diving were the next to go. We’ve actually had to change the venue for a sport like Pencak Silat to a bigger one to cope with the massive public interest.

All 70,000 tickets for the Malaysia-Indonesia semifinal were sold out in two days and of that, 30,000 sold at the venue within three hours yesterday.

We’ve also managed to cater for those who don’t have the opportunity to head to the Games. We’ve had the most ever sports broadcasts live, at 24 sports and 28 disciplines. The most ever! We’ve had two dedicated YouTube live channels, and 15 channels with Video-On-Demand. Every single sport captured live.

We’ve also managed to introduce a few things to make this a groundbreaking “green games”.

We’ve done away with the traditional bouquet of flowers that winners usually get. Instead, we’ve replaced it with tree saplings, with each medal winner having a corresponding tree planted to offset carbon emissions. All food packaging at our venues are biodegradable, and for every regular trashcan we have a one for recyclables.

Now a little about our groundbreaking opening ceremony – we had 39 different sponsors, bringing in a total of more than RM100 million in cash and in kind. Robust YouTube and social media channels. Quick response time on our platforms. List goes on and on.

We’ve managed to do all of the above at half the cost of the Singapore SEA Games two years ago.

And that’s not even to speak about how we’re doing at the Games itself. Right now Malaysia is top, with 68 gold medals. We’ve still got five days to go.

Our theme for the SEA Games is ‘Rising Together’, in the hopes that a region and a nation come together in the spirit of friendship and sportsmanship.

I’d like to invite Mariam to ‘Rise Together’ above political partisanship for the greater good of the nation and see for herself how sports unites.

Khairy Jamaluddin is Minister of Youth and Sports Malaysia and Chairman of the Malaysian Organising Committee (Masoc) for Kuala Lumpur 2017. -Mkini