The Malaysian Paralympic SEA Games

Thank you to the amazing team behind the opening ceremony of the para-SEA Games.

Thank you for celebrating them with dignity and sensitivity, with pomp similar to the SEA Games opening ceremony.

Thank you for giving a face to disabilities, for humanizing them to a community that is not always exposed. Today I saw a significant number of youth especially, in wheelchairs, a few with crutches and obvious muscle weakness. I saw them come in the arena with excitement and for awhile, I couldn’t imagine how they saw these athletes and imagine themselves in their places instead. I saw them leave talking about the ceremony, taking photos in their wheelchairs, like any other young person.

Having pride in our differently abled sportsmen and women gives a face, a role model to others out there with the same challenges; it gives them hope. I couldn’t help being touched as the Paralympic athletes came into the stadium, some with a hemiplegic gait, some in their wheelchairs - all with the pride of representing their respective nations on their faces.

I was told that the celebrations this year were on a different level for the para-games, which were previously treated as the SEA Games poor sibling. This year was a whole different story. It was a statement, more than anything that said that these Paralympic athletes deserved just as much as their able bodied counterparts, and should be celebrated as such.

We are a society that is only as good as we treat the differently abled, the poor and more unfortunate members of our society. Although we have a long way to go, every little bit of effort counts.

Tonight was amazing - I'm so glad I got tickets (thanks team neuro)! Good luck to our Paralympic athletes, you're all already winners!