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The 32nd Southeast Asia Games commenced yesterday and will take place till May 17.
The opening ceremony yesterday drew attention for the wrong reasons, as many noticed country flags being flown upside down.
Cambodia, the host of the games, has since released a formal apology for the mistake.
Upside down
The SEA Games opening ceremony was held at the newly built Morodok Techo National Stadium.
In a performance by local singers, several flag-bearers were seen carrying and flagging the flags of participating countries.
However, many noticed that the Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar flags were upside down.
Image via On Sports/YouTube.
Bendera Indonesia terlihat terbalik di acara pembukaan Sea Games 2023.🇮🇩
Event sebesar Sea Games loh.😫🫠
📸@vivagoal_idn pic.twitter.com/VQ9n2BxtgZ
— FaktaBola (@FaktaSepakbola) May 5, 2023
Here's a side-by-side comparison uploaded by a Facebook user:
Public apology
Many people expressed outrage at the mistake on the formal SEA Games Facebook page.
The acting general secretary of Indonesia's National Olympic Committee Harry Warganegara said they immediately submitted a formal letter over the upside-down flag, CNN Indonesia reported.
Warganegara said Cambodia directly apologised and ensured that a similar blunder would not be repeated in the ceremony.
Town Production, a Cambodian broadcasting and media production company, also issued a public apology on Saturday (May 6).
In the statement, the production company said it deeply regretted the “disrespectful mistake” involving "an oversight from our part for mistakenly reversing the flags".
“We take full responsibility on this matter and would like to humbly ask for your forgiveness for overlooking such important details from our team," they said.
"Moving forward, we hope this mistake will serve as a cautionary tale for others and will work internally to improve our form and ensure this will never happen again.”
They added that they will send an official apology letter to the embassies of the three countries affected by the mistake.
Not the first time
This is not the first time a flag blunder occurred at SEA Games.
In 2017, Malaysia apologised for printing the Indonesian flag upside down in a SEA Games souvenir booklet.
Malaysia apologizes to Indonesia over SEA Games flag blunder https://t.co/GrpJPIccbK pic.twitter.com/yOLa52LFLv
— GR (@F_GR01) August 20, 2017
They also got a number of flags wrong in a medal tally broadcast on TV.
Top image via On Sports/YouTube.