Youth and sports minister Hannah Yeoh has urged the public not to racialise the exclusion of the traditional Indian martial art, silambam, from the upcoming 2026 Malaysia Games (Sukma), saying the decision lies entirely with the host state.
“The Sukma committee has convened, and Selangor as the host state has made its own decision to select the sports it considers important.
“This is not unique to Selangor. In every Sukma edition, the host state is free to choose the sports they want,” she told reporters.
Yeoh said this has been consistent with past editions of Sukma, and urged critics to avoid injecting racial sentiments into decisions made in the sporting arena.
“Let’s not racialise the issue when we talk about sports,” she said.
Yeoh acknowledged the disappointment over silambam’s exclusion, but noted there were other sports that had also not been selected.
“What we can do at the National Sports Council (NSC) is to consider hosting non-Sukma games. As you know, it’s not only silambam that was not chosen – Muay Thai was also not selected. But no racial issue has been raised over that,” she said.
On Tuesday, Yeoh said the 2026 Sukma in Selangor would include e-sports, chess, cricket and kabaddi.
She said the four sports were approved at the Sukma supreme council meeting she chaired, during which boxing and softball were also selected as mandatory Sukma sports effective 2026.
“This brings the number of mandatory sports to 30. With the four additional sports approved for Sukma 2026, 34 sports will be contested,” she said, adding the decision was final and no additional appeals would be entertained.
PKR Youth arts and culture exco Gopiraj Nair today criticised silambam’s exclusion from the games, saying it dismisses the importance of Malaysian legacy sports.
In a statement, he rejected the idea that Indians have adequate representation in other sports such as kabaddi and karate, saying silambam is an Indian martial art with a strong Malaysian grassroots development structure.
Reviewing the Sukma format
Yeoh said today that the government is reviewing Sukma’s format to ensure better continuity and consistency in athlete development moving forward.
“We currently have 103 types of sports. We want to explore a different Sukma model. After Selangor, Kelantan will be the next host. Once Kelantan completes its turn, the full cycle of state hosts will be completed.
“After that, the committee is considering having Putrajaya or the NSC as the permanent host, so states will no longer host the games.
“This will help ensure consistency in the selection of sports, and give us space to review and ensure continuity in the athlete development pathway,” she said.
