From The Pages Of Singapore's Sporting History...: Pesta Sukan - Predecessor of the Singapore National Games

With the Singapore National Games (SNG) ongoing till 7 August 2016, in the lead up to our nation's 51st birthday, thought I should do an article on the origins of the SNG, in its original form.

Pesta Sukan, or “Sports Festival”, was the first festival of sports held in Singapore. The event took place from 4 to 21 December 1964.

Pin badge from the 1st edition

of the Pesta Sukan in 1964.

The festival aimed to encourage higher standards and greater interest in sport as well as to promote racial harmony – significant in light of the communal riots that had taken place in July and September that year.

The festival was declared open by then Minister for Culture S Rajaratnam at Kong Hwa School on 4 December. Singapore was part of the Federation of Malaysia at the time and the festival, which involved some 2,000 sportsmen of whom 800 were from other parts of Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak, helped to foster goodwill through friendly competition.

The festival was sponsored by the Singapore government and supported by 25 voluntary sports organisations. Raffles Institution served as the games village to house the visiting sportsmen. The programme included athletics, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, cycling, football, go-karting, golf, hockey, judo, motor-racing, polo, rugby, sepak-raga (or “sepak takraw” as it is more commonly known today), softball, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling and yachting.

The festival ended with a closing ceremony held at the Gay World Stadium on 21 December.

In 1965, Pesta Sukan came under the purview of the Ministry of Social Affairs. Held from 29 July to 9 August 1965, the second edition had an “international atmosphere” due to the participation of foreign teams from 11 other Asian countries.

After Singapore gained independence on 9 August 1965, Pesta Sukan became an annual feature of the National Day celebrations and was known as Pesta Sukan Minggu Merdeka (Sports Festival Week of Independence) from 1966 to 1969.The festival reverted to its original name thereafter.

An Official's badge from the

1970 edition of Pesta Sukan

The 1970s saw the inclusion of activities geared towards family fun and mass participation such as a water carnival; national walk, jog and cycling events; and dragon boat races.