By V. Ashok

After the ‘Nightmare in Cambodia’, I guess few heads will roll soon, watching the overall embarrassing performances of our Malaysian contingent at the just concluded SEA Games.

From a spectator point of view, it is definitely a heartbreak to watch us going down this bad – something that has never happened in our history of participation since 1959.

In total, our national contingent collected 176 medals – 34 gold, 45 silver and 97 bronze – placing us in the seventh position, one down from its sixth position in the 2021 edition in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Can we also sum up our outing in Phnom Penh as a ‘massive failure’? Yes, because it really does not look good for the future of Malaysian sports.

Earlier, SEA Games was said to be a venue to give exposure to our young talents who made a first time appearance. About 65 per cent of the total 677 athletes came from this group. In short, we only have 35 per cent left to rely on to get the targeted 40 gold. They did their best but some caved in when it mattered the most.

Where did it go wrong this time? Do we see a change of leadership or athletes that failed to be dropped after this dark moment?

There is an old saying in Chinese: ‘When a fish rot, it starts from the head.’ This proverb means that when organisations or nations fail, the leadership is to be blamed: weakness and other problem are said to start from here too.

To make it simple, it is about questioning our sports supremos capabilities in charting success, which is very vital in these case. Again, here in the 32nd edition, we did not really see it coming.

And many suggestions could come from all corners, like is it possible the whole national sports system needs a revamp for the next edition. If it arises, then the leadership too need to follow suit.

Let’s wait and see the outcome of the official report from our chef de mission to Cambodia, Mohd Nasir Ali and the reaction of Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh.

At the press conference ini Phnom Penh, yesterday, he apologised for the contingent’s failure but still defended the 34 golds won was also a great feat. Good try.

Mind you, our Malaysian fans and sports critics are a very wise lot now. Their maturity level in arguing and comparing results are getting better in these modern era.

They seemed capable to make their own assessment and some has a very sound knowledge about sports history to ‘combat’ with our sports officials – both from National Sports Council and the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

Sad to mention, in badminton, track & field, swimming, sepaktakraw and indoor hockey, we are slowly losing our grips. Our Harimau Muda football team too exited early at the group stage.

Other nations like Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, though using the SEA Games for exposure, are harvesting a big bag of gold in each edition. But, how come we seem to be back pedalling in recent editions with all the best funding and support over decades.

Here, its not the time to find excuses for the failure but to be sincere to our tax payers.

To face reality, it is getting worse for us after each edition – and statistically is a bad sign for our future progress.

As for our Malaysian fans, these regional games are no longer attractive like how it used to be in the 70s, 80s or 90s.

When I posted this question to my old friend, his reply was: “I’m not watching much. Tarak kualiti lah (no quality).”

Can’t blame him. He was from the era where football, badminton, sepaktakraw, track & field and cycling were our gold mine with many stars participating and coming out as winners.

In order to keep our home fans to follow and support, it is the gold count that matters. They are hungry for success and want to see our contingent to be on top.

In swimming, for example, our decline in form is obvious. At the peak, Malaysia won nine gold at the 2009 edition in Laos. Then it dropped to five in 2011, four in 2013, three in 2015, three in 2017, two in 2019, one in 2022 and one, this year.

Our neighbour, Singapore won 22 gold out of 39 offered in swimming events in Phnom Penh and that big figures helped them to leap above us on the overall medals standing.

For a tiny nation with nearly six milllion people, it is a big shout. Knowing with limited space to built many sports facilities, they are smart to select sports they can excel and keep on progressing. The consistence sports system with hard training, particularly in Olympics sports is showing positive results in every edition.

Badminton, once our strong dominance in SEA Games is now fast fading. Not only we have to face the challenge from our traditional rival, Indonesia but Thailand, Singapore are becoming a much bigger threat now.

Our team only manage to get two silver and four bronze. It is a failure as we targeted at least one gold in these edition. Yes, Thailand did win one gold through their women singles.

Track & field events delivered their gold collection through Grace Wong (hammer throw), Shereen Samson Vallabuoy (400 meter), Umar Osman (400m), Muhammad Irfan Shamsuddin (discus throw) and Andre Anura (triple jump).

The numbers used to be 10,12,14 or 16 in our past glorious days. All gone now.

Malaysia should take a moment to look back what went wrong and regret the dismal performance of the contingent in Phnom Penh. They need to do some soul searching in order to move forward and start a rebuilding process which may take some time.

This view was highlighted by sports analyst, Dr Pekan Ramli who has been a fierce critic since our 40 gold medals target was announced about a week before our athletes left to Cambodia.

“Malaysia’s performance was embarrassing. We can’t deny the fact we failed miserably.

“Not only we failed to achieve the medal target but worse, we finished seventh. It is a bitter pill to swallow as it has never happened in our history of participation. These are both key indicators,” he said.

Pekan added, the SEA Games must be taken seriously as it is also one of the main component of development.

“If it is a domestic competition, its OK, but not when you are representing the country. Malaysia should take SEA Games seriously, just like the Asian Games and Olympics. Remember development begins here.”

On other colourful note, Vietnam successfully defended their overall title with a massive 136 gold, 105 silver and 114 bronze for a total of 355 medals, followed by Thailand – another nation that takes SEA Games seriously with 108-95-108 and Indonesia, third (85-81-109).

Host, Cambodia – one of the poor showing nations in previous editions – gave their people the best ever present with 81-74-127 as the fourth best nation. Their shocking achievement – to an extend, being a reason why Malaysia was pushed to seventh placing this time.

After a disastrous outing, our athletes should remember winning a gold medal here will give them more confidence for future success. It would further inspire them to do well in bigger sporting stage like the Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, the Olympics and world championship.

If you can’t take an opportunity try to win gold in SEA Games at a young age, how are you going to face bigger obstacles in other global competition. So, the word exposure need to be address properly as these ‘little warriors’ here may have a different perspective in understanding it.

Majulah sukan untuk negara!

SEA Games is not just about solidarity and participation but an attitude to win and stay above the rest.

The painful moment in Cambodia should push our contingent to strive better at the 2025 edition in Thailand.