Kuala Lumpur goes digital

KUALA LUMPUR – An estimated 84,000 Malaysians, foreign guests, athletes, sports officials and media attended Saturday’s SEA Games opening ceremonies which gave spectators and millions of TV viewers across Asia a piece of Malaysian history and a touch of digital creativity.

Malaysia’s greatest athletes – keirin world champion Azizulhasni Awang, diving queen Cheong Jun Hoong and world silat champion Mohd Al Jufferi Jamari – drew roaring cheers as they led a Malaysian contingent of over 800 athletes and officials, who marched into the stadium behind a long colorful parade of athletes and officials from ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor Leste, all clad in their national colors.

Athletes from the Philippines, led by Kirstie Elaine Alora of taekwondo, joined the marchpast in blue Filipiniana-inspired shirts while Malaysia came in full force from all sports, including sporting heroes from the generations who carried the Federation and Games flags into the stadium. They include soccer legends Datuk James Wong, Datuk Shukor Salleh and Datuk Santokh Singh, sprinter Datuk Rabuan Pit as well as bowling star Shalin Zulkifli.

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Malaysia’s made-for-TV production, approximating perhaps the bigger-than-life, hi-tech extravaganza of the Singapore opening rites in 2015, was a Disneyland-inspired digital presentation starring the graceful and powerful Malayan Tiger called  Rimau who soared into space and time, leaving a trail of lights that streaked through Malaysian history, depicting through lights and sounds  and the rattle of  Chinese, Malay and Indian drum shows the richness of its past. 

In one of the night’s spectacles, athletes from different generations carried the Games torch, which has travelled the length and breadth of the country over the past three months, into the stadium.