In a major test of Myanmar’s infrastructure and
organisation, thousands of athletes, officials, media and visitors will descend
for the 22-day multi-sport event starting on Sunday.
“We are 100 percent ready to hold the SEA Games,” sports
ministry director Htay Aung told AFP.
“We are ready now. We held the final rehearsal of opening
ceremony yesterday,” he added.
Htay Aung said 6,000 athletes and 3,000 journalists are
due for the Games, which begin in low-key fashion with football preliminaries
and floorball demonstration events on Sunday.
The event comes just two years after the former pariah
state started making wide-ranging reforms in a sudden and unexpected opening-up
to the outside world.
It does not formally get underway until the opening
ceremony on December 11 at the 30,000-seat Wunna Theikdi Stadium in the newly
built capital, Naypyidaw.
Nine thousand athletes and journalists alone are expected
and “hundreds of thousands” of local fans will attend, Htay Aung said.
Vice President Nyan Tun has urged athletes to “strive for
a golden age of Myanmar sports… improving the reputation of the country and
making history to be regarded as sporting heroes”, according to a government
release.
However, privately some officials are concerned about the
preparations and potential problems, especially the number of hotel rooms to
accommodate all the visitors.
“There are many things to be done even though many
ministries are involved. Hotel rooms cannot be enough because many foreigners
and many visitors will come,” a government official, who did not want to be
named, told AFP.
“Ten of thousands of people will join the events.
Hopefully everything can be done smoothly. Cooperation between ministries is
very weak,” he confided.
A senior police official admitted: “Thousands of athletes
and officials and also thousands of fans will come. Although we tried our best
for security with enough numbers, I’m a little bit nervous.”
The SEA Games are not unfamiliar with problems. The last edition
in Indonesia was hit by corruption and delays in construction, and a deadly
stadium stampede at the men’s football final.
Myanmar is currently battling religious and ethnic
tensions with unrest and bomb blasts in parts of the country in recent weeks.
Some 1,380 medals will be handed out in events ranging
from mainstream sports such as athletics to the traditional but obscure Myanmar
pursuit of chinlone.
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