THE joke going around is that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim wants Malaysia to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games because he missed out on the last time the event was held in this country.
The 1998 edition (SUKOM98) was held from September 11 to 21 of that year.
Instead of enjoying the Games and attending as deputy prime minister, Anwar was instead in the fight of his life – sacked a week before the Games by then-prime minister Tun (then Datuk Seri) Dr Mahathir Mohamad and then arrested, charged, and jailed – paving the way for the Reformasi movement.
Fast forward a quarter of a century later, and today he is the prime minister contemplating Malaysia hosting the next Games while Mahathir is facing the (rare) likelihood of jail.
Much has been debated about the prudence of hosting the Games considering the country’s financial situation.
The fact that SUKOM98 is mired in losses of over RM11 million and lawsuits adds to the argument against hosting the Games.
To compound the matter, Malaysia is “rescuing” the Games after Victoria pulled out of the event due to a cost blowout.
The Victorian government figured it would cut its losses and pay the AU$380 million (RM1.2 billion) penalty rather than spend AU$6.9 billion (RM22 billion) to hold the event.
This staggering number is enough to spook anyone and ask if the government has its head screwed on right in wanting to host an expensive sporting event it can ill afford and one that does not have the same pull as the Olympics – which itself has seen host cities struggle financially.
However, the Australian auditor-general on Tuesday lent context to the potential bill down under.
It blamed government agencies for exaggerating the numbers and not painting the right picture for the Victorian government to make an informed decision on whether to proceed with the Games or not.
Agencies with their interests had inflated the cost hoping to piggyback on the state and federal governments in getting their allocations and infrastructure approved on the Commonwealth Games budget.
A lot of the money was going towards the construction of new infrastructure and venues.
Hence, now the Aussies are being criticised for making the hasty decision to pull out.
In comes Malaysia, which was offered to rescue the 2026 Games by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).
As a carrot, the CGF has offered £100 million (RM602 million) to help with the cost, estimated at RM1.3 billion.
As a lifeline host, Malaysia is exempt from paying the £25 million (RM155 million) hosting fee.
Scoop reported on Wednesday that the government is averse to spending taxpayers’ money to host the Games and hence will seek the involvement of the private sector to top up the budget.
This appears to be consistent with what Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh told Parliament on Thursday – that if the government decides to hold the Games, it must be within the RM602 million given by CGF.
Hannah had also told Parliament the previous week that concerts by Blackpink and Coldplay had brought in over RM200 million for the country.
Will the Commonwealth Games generate the same kind of mass movement of people to the country? It is estimated that 15,000 people flew into Kuala Lumpur for the two concerts.
Arguably it is hoped that there will be such economic spillover if the Games is held here. At least the supporters and families of the respective 70 contingents would contribute to visitor arrivals.
How many exactly? That is a question that is difficult to answer.
However, it does help that 2026 is also Visit Malaysia Year and according to Budget 2024, the government targets 26.1 million tourist arrivals in 2026 and an estimated domestic spending of RM97.6 million.
To achieve this, the government has allocated RM350 million in promotions and advertising. With the currency expected to plateau at RM4.50 to the dollar by then, this is a small budget that will have a limited effect.
With a global television audience of around 30 million according to the 2022 Games in Birmingham, these eyeballs should help Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing achieve his publicity KPI with the limited budget he has been allocated.
A total of 1.5 million tickets were sold in Birmingham in 2022. One does not expect these kinds of numbers, especially when Malaysia (if it agrees to host) is expected to halve the number of events from the current 23.
Surely though, it would generate some form of economic activity for the hospitality industry, the tourism sector, the food and beverage industry, the transportation segment, and the retail sector to name a few.
And with politics expected to amp up in anticipation of the 16th general election fever, some feel-good factor would definitely help to lower temperatures – as it did 26 years ago when Malaysia celebrated its best Commonwealth Games outing as the country was going through its worst political upheaval. – March 22, 2024
Terence Fernandez is the group editor in chief of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop