Olympic Spirit in the Heart of Borneo

Ask any British diplomat what makes them tick, and the answer often has three parts: something to do with “Queen and Country”, something to do with “making a difference”, and something to do with the intrinsic interest of “getting under the skin of another culture”. My plate, during this Olympic year, has contained large helpings of all three; offset by more physical exercise than you might expect from reading my job description (though perhaps it comes under “Queen and Country”).

My first inkling that promoting the London Games in the 100% humidity of Brunei might prove a sweaty business came just over a year ago, when His Royal Highness Prince Sufri Bolkiah, President of Brunei’s National Olympic Council, invited me to “assist” at the launch of Olympic Day 2011. Brunei’s Royal Family are famously energetic. The event included a brisk hike around the oil town of Kuala Belait.

I was in better shape by Olympic Day 2012 (which involved 45 minutes of 7-a-side football), having “assisted” at several exercise-connected events in the intervening months, including a jog around the capital with athletes from Loughborough College who had brought to Brunei an original 1948 London Olympic Torch. I was caught up in a virtuous circle of British advocacy and authentic local enthusiasm, which fed back into ever more imaginative initiatives by “Team GB”.

I can’t single out one “best idea” among so many – everything from radio quizzes to flag-raising ceremonies (including by Brunei’s wheelchair javelin champion, Awang Sahri Bin Haji Jumat, who is a contender at the Paralympics). On New Year’s Day we gave T-shirts to Brunei’s 2012 firstborns. For our Diamond Jubilee Queen’s Birthday Party we held a “Spirit of the Games” art competition. And we extended the deadline for our Digital Scrapbook competition for Bruneian students in the UK so the films they sent us could reflect the run-up to the Games.

But I can say which event made the biggest impression on my waistline. That would be our Olympic Truce athletics meet – a salute by the UK to the peacekeeping professionalism of the Royal Brunei Armed Forces (RBAF). My home movie below might be subtitled “For Queen and Country”. But Brunei’s brave peacekeepers do it for the world, justifying their nation’s reputation as the “Abode of Peace”.

At our Olympic Truce event I “anchored” (that being the operative term) a High Commission 4 x 100 metre relay squad. To redress the balance, we also fielded a team of Gurkhas. We went up against teams from the RBAF, the Police, the Prisons Department, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, the Brunei National Olympic Council, and even a team containing Brunei’s own Olympians.

That special team included the first female athlete to represent Brunei at an Olympic games, the 400 metre runner Maziah Mahusin, whom I watched carry Brunei’s flag proudly into London’s new Olympic Stadium at the Opening Ceremony. Whatever happens in her heat, she has already “Inspired a Generation”, in Brunei and beyond.