S’porean Muslim Athletes Being Served Pork At SEA Games Was Fake News, Says SNOC

SCMP Has Made Changes To Article About Singaporean Muslim Athletes Being Served Pork At SEA Games

The 2019 SEA Games in Manila has received its fair share of complaints, one of which is that food catered for Muslim athletes from Singapore lacked variety and quantity.

Earlier this week, South China Morning Post (SCMP) also reported that Muslim athletes from Singapore were served pork at the event and that the chef de mission had spoken to the members of the media in the Philippines about it.

The Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC), however, has debunked these allegations, calling them “untrue”.

Singapore Muslim athletes were not served pork

According to ChannelNews Asia (CNA), the SCMP article stated that Muslim athletes were served kikiam or ngoh hiang, which contains pork.

For illustration purposes
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As a result, Juliana Seow – Singapore team’s chef de mission, told Philippines media that they had to specially dabao food for their Muslim athletes.

Century Park Hotel, where Singaporean athletes are staying 
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The article also wrote that game organisers had ignored prior reminders from the Philippines Muslim Commission to serve halal food at the games.

SCMP removes false allegations in the article

However, SNOC has since disputed these allegations as “untrue”.

On Monday (26 Nov), the council wrote to the media, saying that athletes from Singapore have experienced “teething problems” at the SEA Games, but will work with organisers to address them.

Singapore’s U-22 football team at the SEA Games 
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The statement did not mention that Muslim athletes from Singapore were served pork.

The council has since written to SCMP seeking a correction.

At the time of writing, SCMP has removed the erroneous allegations after receiving clarifications from the SNOC.

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Hope issues will be resolved before the start of SEA Games

We’re glad that SCMP made swift changes to their article to reflect what had really happened.

The Philippines SEA Games have been off to a bad start with logistical and administrative issues plaguing them throughout the past week.

We hope the organisers will resolve those soon so athletes from the region can perform at their best when the Games begin on Saturday (30 Nov).

Featured image adapted from Facebook.