Oleh/By		:	DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD 
Tempat/Venue 	: 	DATARAN MERDEKA, KUALA LUMPUR (K.L) 
Tarikh/Date 	: 	10/12/91 
Tajuk/Title  	: 	LAUNCHING OF THE 1998 COMMONWEALTH 
			GAMES BID FUND 



 
    It  gives  me  much   pleasure  to   welcome   all  the
Commonwealth Games Federation Officials and  sports  leaders
from the  Commonwealth countries to Malaysia.  I  hope  that
during you short stay here,  you will enjoy our  hospitality
for which Malaysians are quite well known and maybe take the
opportunity  to  see  something  of our country  apart  from
inspecting the sports facilities.
2.   Malaysia is a nation of  sports  lovers  like  all  the
other  Commonwealth nations.   Despite the fact that we have
not excelled in sports other than certain  games,  our  love
for sports still gives us the enthusiasm to arrange a number
of  sporting  events  at the international level and in this
respect we can justly say that we have acquired a degree  of
expertise.    We  have  in  the past been very successful in
staging a number of world events in various  sports  and  in
the next few years we will also be hosting a number of major
events  such  as  the  Thomas   Cup  for   world   badminton
championship, the World Corporate Games,  the World Cup Golf
and the World Cup Junior Football.
3.   We  are  pleased with our successful staging of so many
sporting events.  There is full Government support in  terms
of  providing the necessary physical facilities and funds to
ensure the success of the sporting events.  More importantly
we always have the full support of our people when we  stage
these events.
4.     In 1989, when we staged the Sea Games we had the full
support of  Malaysians  throughout  the  country  and  U.S$3
million  was  raised  from  a  torch  run which started from
Penang in the North and went through various  parts  of  the
country.   Our people fully support sport because we believe
that sport is a strong unifying factor, especially important
in   a   multiracial,    multilingual,   multicultural   and
multireligious country like ours.  If  you have a chance  to
visit  our countryside  you  will  see that we have football
fields and other sporting facilities in almost all our towns
and  villages.    This  is indeed the basis  of  our  sports
policy because we feel through sport  we can create a united
and healthy nation.
5.   We  have  brought you here because we want you to share
our experience if we are given an opportunity to  stage  the
1998  Commonwealth Games.  We have brought you here not only
because we want to show you Government support for  the  bid
made  by the Olympic Council of Malaysia but we also like to
show you that the people of Malaysia fully support our bid.
6.   Today we will be launching a fund raising  campaign  to
raise  money  from  members of the public to support the bid
for the Commonwealth Games.  As a symbolic gesture, we  have
organised  a  Commonwealth  Games Run which will start imme-
diately after this ceremony.  You can see the support we are
having with the crowd around us today.  In the space of less
than a month from the time a decision was taken to  organise
the run, we have gathered together this large number of peo-
ple  who  have  all  paid  a symbolic two ringgit or U.S. 70
cents each to participate in the run.  This is only the  be-
ginning.    For  the  next three months we will be gathering
signatures from hundreds of thousands of Malaysians from all
over the country together with their contributions  to  show
their  support for the Malaysian bid.  We are confident that
with the people's support and the support of the  Government
the Olympic Council of Malaysia will be able to stage a very
successful and enjoyable Commonwealth Games.
7.   You  might  like to ask why Malaysia is so keen to host
the 1998 Commonwealth Games.  We believe that there are many
areas which can be used to strengthen the ties among Common-
wealth countries.  We also believe that there are many areas
in which countries can help one another.  Sport is one  such
area  where  we  can definitely increase and strengthen ties
among the Commonwealth countries. Sport is very much a  peo-
ple  to  people  thing  and  through sport the people in the
world can get to know one another and create and  strengthen
the  sort  of  friendly  ties that the Commonwealth wants to
promote.
8.   I am confident you as sports  leaders  in  the  Common-
wealth  will appreciate the efforts we are making in bidding
for the 1998 Commonwealth  Games.  I  can  assure  you  that
Malaysia  will do everything it can to make the 1998 Common-
wealth Games the best ever.

 

 



 









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