SEA Games boycott?

Indonesia is considering a boycott of the 2027 Southeast Asian Games next September in Malaysia. A National Olympic Committee member there has brought up the idea of foregoing the biennial event in response to the exclusion of several sports wherein they have a chance of medalling. Events such as sport climbing, rowing, beach volleyball, triathlon and other significant sports were taken from the menu by the organizing committee. Chess, rowing, jiu-jitsu, handball, wrestling and kickboxing have also been excluded. Coincidentally, The Philippines is also strong in many of these sports.

In 2025, the SEA Games in Thailand involved 573 events from about 50 sports. In Malaysia, there will only be 473 events from 43 sports, a substantial drop-off. Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Dr. Mohammed Taufiq Johari has claimed that he has received no formal notice of protest or boycott from Indonesia, and explained that selection of sports underwent a process with the SEA Games Federation.

This is a perennial problem with the SEA Games, Asian Games and even the Olympics. The host country is given the privilege of selecting a menu of sports that it can stage, and remove or add others as it sees fit. That is why arnis, billiards, bowling and other sports are not regularly seen in the Games. They may add reasons like lack of available venues, budget, and so on. That is only one way to handicap visiting countries and pad your own medal tally. But Malaysia has overdone it, adding to their long history of being unfair to competitors when hosting. And the selection of sports is just one way they have gamed the system. In past editions, Malaysian organizers have manipulated schedules, swapped officials and slated conflicting event times, among other uncouth maneuvers.

“They also took out women’s boxing, there we have Olympic medalists in Aira Villegas and Nesthy Petecio,” rues Philippine Sports Commissioner Fritz Gaston, who handles boxing, among others. They have all of their own sports. I think we should take that (privilege) out.”

It is unlikely that the Philippines will join the campaign for a boycott. There is too much publicity, goodwill and exposure involved, particularly since the following year is an Olympic year. But after decades of being victim to these highwaymen and breaking the hearts of hundreds of our athletes, the country should strongly fight for other ASEAN members’ right to have their favored sports included as well, regardless of whether the host country is competitive or not. Isn’t fairness a basic tenet of sports to begin with? Why be satisfied with hollow victories? Buy yourselves medals and save everyone’s time and trouble. Or change the system. Then again, who will do that and upset their other friends in the club?

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NBA and PBA champion Glenn McDonald will be the subject of this week’s episode of “Masters of the Game,” airing this afternoon at 5:15 pm over IBC 13, DWAN 1206 AM, Facebook and YouTube.