I am happy to find this thread, are members who reply only from Southeast Asia or are there from outside?
Indonesia (my country) can be said to have successfully held the Asian Games last year and the medal achievement also exceeded the target and to be honest it was very encouraging, but I can't predict wheter Indonesia in this SEA Games 30th can reach first place, hopefully if it can't be first ranked at least in the second place.
Real talk here, how can the Philippine athletes perform better if the government instead of cheering for them, the anti-admin is throwing mud to the admin because of corruption in building the stadium. Just check the local news in the Philippines and see whats the story about SEA games and you will find over priced stadium being investigated and over priced contract handed to a Malaysian firm. Very little mention about the athletes.
I am still hoping for Philippines to make it at least on the top 3 if they cant make it to number 1. Philippines will be represented with 1,868 athletes.
You know what, Brazil Olimpics are problematic and arguably get a rejection from the community for spending large funds on building stadium, there will always be pros and cons.
I often read that governments in a country often do not care about athletes they only care about when there will be a tournament and forget about these athletes when they are finished, fortunately my current government is very concerned with athletes. Bonuses for athletes are given directly when a championship is finished and difficult to be manipulated because the funds are directly transferred to a bank account in the athlete's name not only to athletes but also to other official trainers