Title: “Sports is a crucial part of ASEAN and it will be nothing without it.” – Malaysian Delegate in the AMMS

The Malaysian Delegate in AMMS

By Tyler Tan, Timothy Tan, and Muruganandam Sathiyaselan 

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 June (Bernama) -- Malaysia leads the conversation, as critical discussions on talent development, funding, and regional sovereignty take place in the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Sports (AMMS). 

Recent solutions proposed in the AMMS aim to tackle all tiers and stages of athlete development, namely the local and national level. 

One such framework, proposed by the delegate of Malaysia that has met widespread approval from the council, is a multi-stage plan to improve coaching in the region as a whole through ASEAN centralisation.

In the framework, elite coaches around the region are to be centrally trained in Malaysia’s ASEAN Center for Excellence for Sports Coaching. 

Afterwards, these coaches will return to their home countries and share their knowledge with local athletes, effectively creating a trickle-down system to benefit regional sports, even at the grassroots level. 

The delegate of the European Union (EU) also introduced another potential solution that could work in tandem, an EU-ASEAN coaching curriculum. 

This curriculum would allow the EU, with its extensive pool of sporting ability and talent, to work with ASEAN to develop a curriculum that would be context-sensitive, inclusive and aligned with international best practices to ensure regional relevance.  

The Malaysian Delegate has also been working extensively with Timor Leste, reinforcing Malaysia’s continued support for Timor Leste and its pursuit of ASEAN Membership. 

Other countries’ solutions have also contributed to the detail and precision of the larger plans, highlighting the productivity of debate in the AMMS. Significantly, anti-corruption measures, talent-seeking measures, and others have been proposed to supplement the existing solutions. 

The council ultimately plans to expound on the existing ASEAN Work Plan on Sports 2021-2025,2 which, according to the Delegates, lacks concrete, or enforceable solutions to the issue at hand. 

This comes in the context of intra-regional inequality, in terms of ability and political will to fund sports, as well as a general lack of elite-level coaches in ASEAN.

However, funding and their sources remain a point of discussion. 

The reality is that ASEAN governments’ diverse attitudes towards funding sportsmay make the precise and well-planned, though less-than-thrifty solutions hard for governments at home to buy.

Malaysia, for one, has fully committed itself to fiscal responsibility, ever since the Public Finance And Fiscal Responsibility Law in 2023. 

Fortunately, many observer states, such as the US, China and South Korea have nobly stepped up to help fund these projects, with domestic programs like the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, which has invested 9.2 trillion won into Korea’s sports industry. 

However, the former’s ability to commit foreign aid is in question, and their motives are shaky, with the US Delegate citing “competition” as one of its main motives, which comes after the cutting of USAID by the Trump Administration. 

Furthermore, only ASEAN-external funding mechanisms have been proposed as of the third council session, leaving the question of ASEAN’s fiscal precedents and regional sovereignty open. 

The latter became accentuated with further calls for non-ASEAN involvement in fund oversight and decision making. 

In response to the first issue,, the Malaysian Delegate responded by highlighting the fact that in today’s world of tightening budgets, “[external] funds are necessary” to help fund ASEAN’s sports. 

Regarding regional sovereignty, he noted that “bystander countries will provide initiatives and assistance”, but that this involvement does not equate to the “undermining [of regional] sovereignty”, due to ASEAN’s own extensive involvement. 

Though ASEAN’s sports scene is by no means unimportant, with the Malaysian Delegate noting: “Sports is a crucial part of ASEAN and it will be nothing without it”, Delegates may need to prioritise, instead of proposing new, grandiose and all-encompassing plans. 

This could come in the form of sports budget cuts to non-essential areas, or areas that do not require immediate prioritisation. 

Though their plans are well-meaning and detailed, delegates may find it beneficial to review the feasibility of their solutions and resources they have at their disposal. 

-- BERNAMA