SEAG haggling a mockery

This weekend, the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) is convening representatives from the region’s 11 member countries to finalize once and for all the events that will be disputed in the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Palembang, Indonesia, on Nov. 11-25.

Everybody expects a circus with a lot of horse-trading and haggling instead of a serious discussion where the integrity of sports is upheld. Every two years when the SEA Games are staged, it’s the same story over and over again. The dominant countries look to run roughshod over the perennial also-rans and when they’re hosting, nothing is spared in making sure victory is in the bag.

Since the SEA Games were reconstituted in 1977 from the previous Southeast Asian Peninsular Games, host countries have won the overall championship in six of the last eight stagings. The exceptions were Brunei in 1999 and Laos in 2009 – neither of which was a contender for top honors anyway. Even the Philippines managed to win the overall title, its first ever, in 2005 when the host country introduced such sports as arnis, triathlon, muay, fin swimming, baseball and handball in the calendar.

If you check the records, you’ll find out that the most gold medals ever harvested in the SEA Games came when Indonesia hosted in 1997, hauling in an incredible 194. In 1987, Indonesia collected 183 gold medals and in 2007, Thailand also gathered 183 gold medals – both were host nations those years. Vietnam garnered 158 gold medals in 2003, the only year when it hosted.

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This November, Indonesia is determined – at all costs – to wrest the overall championship from Thailand which reigned supreme in neighboring Laos in 2009. The ungracious hosts are striking out events where other countries are favored and insisting on obscurities like vovinam, paragliding, bridge, kenpo, roller skating and wall climbing to improve their chances of victory. Can you believe that in trying to guarantee the overall title, Indonesia is even sacrificing Olympic events like handball, hockey and modern pentathlon?

Indonesia’s rabid pursuit of the championship has led the organizing committee to bloat the gold medals at stake to a record 562 in 44 sports. Two years ago in Laos, there were 372 gold medals in 25 sports on the table. And in 2007, there were 436 in 43 sports.

To start the bargaining process, Indonesia has sent word that it intends to discard cue sports (billiards and snooker – a staple since 1991), squash (which was played in nine of the last 11 SEA Games), trap and skeet shooting, triathlon and springboard synchronized diving (an Olympic event), dancesport, arnis, bodybuilding, rugby union and lawn bowls from the menu.

It’s likely the hosts will end up giving less and taking more but for sure, there will be a lot of trading on the meeting floor. What message does this deliver to athletes, especially those from sports on the bubble? In the hands of manipulators and backroom operators lies the fate of innocent athletes who just want to represent their countries without playing politics.

Has the drunken glory of winning overtaken the sensibility of preserving the integrity of sports?

Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) deputy secretary-general Mark Joseph said Indonesia’s list of events and sports was never approved by the SEAGF. In fact, he pointed out that in the SEAGF charter, the list must be ratified a year before the staging of the games. Yet, it is now only nine months before the Palembang event and there is still no certainty of what sports will be in the calendar.

“Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have all written their objections and the POC will be finalizing our position,” said Joseph. “We have asked all NSAs (National Sports Associations) to coordinate with their counterparts in other countries, their international federations and Asian federations. Being a year before the Olympics, we all want the SEA Games to be right. What surprises me is that Indonesia had pledged four years ago to concentrate on the Olympic and core sports, billiards and snooker among them.”

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Joseph said he suspects the hosts are baiting to horse-trade. “We hope the list they sent us was a grab bag, not final and subject to bargaining,” he said. “But from the looks of it, Indonesia has definitely done their homework to make sure they take away golds from all countries and of course, put in sports they can win. Another example of a sport removed is muay. So you can see that they really want to do a number on Thailand, first of all, being the defending champion and the rest of us as well. Thailand has also traditionally reigned in triathlon.”

Joseph explained that the SEA Games are often referred to as the battleground between the traditionalists and the progressives. “The progressives want the Olympic system with fixed sports and events,” he went on. “The traditionalists want to maintain the old ‘it’s my right to screw you since I’m the host and spending all this money to win’ thinking. If the progressives were to win, the commercial value of the SEA Games and the financial contributions to members would be substantial. In 2007, Mr. (Jose) Cojuangco as life president steered the SEAGF to the progressive stance but Laos bucked, saying they needed the income for themselves. They raised money to host by trading sports complexes for prime land with China. Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines were with the progressives and we won the vote. So we wonder why Indonesia has regressed.”