World Pencak Silat Championship: Pesaka, Persilat to conduct post-mortem

MELAKA: The Malaysian National Silat Federation (Pesaka) and the International Pencak Silat Federation (Persilat) will conduct a post-mortem, particularly on the regulatory aspects throughout the organisation of the six-day 19th World Pencak Silat Championship that was held here from July 26.

Pesaka president Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin said this was to ensure improvements could be made, including on current rules, so that the next edition in Indonesia next year runs smoothly.

"Even though we had one or two small incidents and a bit of controversy, I don't think we should look at what happened so as to mar the entire course of the competition.

"Overall I am very satisfied with the organisation of the championship this time...we managed to bring the image of silat to a more professional and higher level which will indeed be difficult for other host countries to emulate after this," he told reporters after the closing ceremony of the championships last night.

On the official protest mounted for a rematch between national silat exponent Mohammad Khairi Adib Azhar and Singapore's Aniq 'Asri Mohammad Yazid, Megat Zulkarnain said the protest submitted to the championship's International Technical Delegation has discontinued.

He said the decision was appropriate and needed to be accepted openly so that the final ceremony of the international championship would not be disrupted.

Meanwhile, Megat Zulkarnain said the 2022 Malaysia Games (Sukma) which will take place this September in Kuala Lumpur will be a platform for Pesaka to discover new backup exponents to represent the country at the SEA Games in Cambodia and the 20th World Pencak Silat Championship in Indonesia next year.

"Sukma has always been the 'factory' to unearth new talent and my promise is that if they are good enough, they will be roped into the national squad," he said.

Separately, he also thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for the RM1 million that was allocated to Pesaka as an appreciation of the contributions of the silat fraternity and to help the federation develop the martial art further onto the world stage.

He said the funds will be distributed to Pesaka's 20 affiliate bodies nationwide and also used for administration purposes.

-- BERNAMA