Page 292 - The Guide To Sarawak

290 SPORTS & RECREATION
Healthy Minds in Healthy Bodies
Historical Background
The people of Sarawak are renowned for their strong competitive spirit, and sport has always played a significant role in their lives, with many ethnic groups having their own traditional sports. The Malays practice competitive kite flying and top spinning (or gasing), as well as the mystical martial art of silat and the elegant net sport of sepak takraw. The interior peoples – the Iban, Bidayuh and Orang Ulu – enjoy blowpipe shooting, longboat racing and their own distinctive styles of wrestling. The coastal Melanau have a stern test of strength and endurance called tibau, where young men compete to see who can cling the
longest to a giant swing.
The Chinese have millennia of sporting history to draw upon and wushu, t’ai chi and related arts remain popular to this day. Even
the small community of Eurasians have had a role
to play; engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and athletics fan Horace Gray became Sarawak’s first Olympic Delegate, attending the 1960 Rome Olympics, albeit at his own expense.
After independence the Sarawak Ministry of Social Development formed a sport and youth department, fulfilling the natural desire to modernize, strengthen and develop sport in Sarawak. This was followed by the setting up of the Sarawak State Sports Council, which commenced operations
in 1985 with the aim of coordinating Sarawak’s participation in SUKMA
(Malaysian Games). Its other objectives were to develop overall standards (especially high performance sports);
to promote and publicize Sarawak through sports; to motivate and manage sports talent to realise its maximum potential; to play an active role in social development and to develop a healthy, cultured and disciplined society.
Building on a Solid Foundation
The Sports Council achieved almost immediate success, with Sarawak becoming
the overall winner of the biennial SUKMA in 1990, 1992 and 1994, with second place in every subsequent competition until 2008. However a sobering 6th place in 2010 underlined
the need to strengthen the state’s sports resources. Fortunately the Social Development Ministry
was already taking steps
to rectify this. A long
term sports masterplan
was commissioned, to be drawn up by international consultants, resulting
in the setting up of the Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) during 2010. The
SSC will professionalize sports administration in Sarawak, and introduce statistical research, sports medicine and academic tie-ups to reap the
benefits of contemporary sports science. It will be implementing a 10-year
plan to position Sarawak
Senior State Government officials taking part in the Civil Service Health Ride. From left to right: YB Datuk Haji Abdul Wahab Aziz, Assistant Minister for Land Development; YB Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Mohamad Morshidi Bin Abdul Ghani, Sarawak State Secretary; YB Datuk Amar Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Datuk Abang Haji Openg, Minister of Housing and Minister of Tourism, Sarawak; Datu Abdul Razak Tready, State Attorney General; and Datu Haji Misnu Taha, Deputy State Secretary.