ASEAN Spirit apparent even in Sporting Event
Thousands of miles away and half the world apart do not diminish the ASEAN kinship here in Santiago, Chile. Although small in number with only five ASEAN embassies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), the spirit of ASEAN remains strong and apparent even in a sporting event. The camaraderie was evident during the Awarding and Closing Ceremony of the ASEAN Games, organised at the Patio Rocaseca of the Santiago campus of the University Tomas on 18 August 2007.
The event was hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, as the event coordinator for year 2007. About 100 diplomats, family members and community representatives of the five ASEAN embassies attended the ceremony. Special guests of the event were Ambassador Fernando Schmidt, Director for Asia Pacific of Chile?s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Monsignor Aldo Cavalli of the Apostolic Nuncio and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Dr. Gerardo Rocha, Founder and President of the Universidad de Santo Tomas (UST) of Chile and Dr. Jaime Vatter, Rector of UST.
The Games was initiated in 1999, which was then called the Asian Diplomats Sports Competition. Held from April 10 to May 2 of that year, participants included the diplomats, staff and family members of the embassies of China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand. Subsequently, counterparts from the embassies of Australia, India and New Zealand were invited to participate.
The Games were held annually from 1999 to 2003. They were not held in 2004 due to the busy schedules of embassies in preparations for Chile's hosting of the APEC Summit in that year. The Games were revived again last year and, hopefully, will once again be held regularly. Following previous tradition, the other six Asia-Pacific embassies - Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea - were invited to participate in the 2007 Games.
At the 2006 Games, over 100 participants took part in four sporting events - bowling, golf, ping-pong and tennis - which were held from May to July 2006. The Philippines team emerged as overall champions, dislodging perennial winner Indonesia, with seven gold medals out of the ten sporting categories. Luck was not on Malaysian team side in 2006 and although they did not emerge as the overall champion, they still made the Malaysian community proud by garnering 5 medals (2 silvers and 3 bronzes) out of 10 sporting events. The Malaysian team vowed to improve their position this year and as a matter of fact, a few members of the team have started to practise their swinging skills at the golf course during the weekends! Watch out Tiger Wood!
The occasion also witnessed the hand-over of chairmanship of the Games from H.E. Ambassador Faiz to the Ambassador of Philippines. In addition, four new ASEAN diplomats (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand) were formally introduced and warmly welcomed into the big family. As any other great festive, the occasion ended with the typical ASEAN way - 'makan time' - a large spread of the best Southeast Asian cuisine in Chile.
Indeed, it was a heart-warming experience when the various ASEAN representatives converge in a friendly competition and to cheer not only to their compatriots but anyone who deserves applause. The Annual Games is indeed one of the best ways to foster camaraderie and unity among the diplomats, staff and family members of the ASEAN embassies in Santiago.
www.kln.gov.my/perwakilan/santiago
