PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK): Malaysia's chef de mission Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria wants the Malaysian contingent to toe the line at next month's Singapore SEA Games.

Malaysia will be sending a contingent comprising 653 athletes and 206 officials to the Games from June 5-16.

They will all be placed in hotels scattered throughout the island republic and Norza wants the team managers to make sure their charges don't break the rules.

The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) were forced to fork out almost RM150,000 after the Malaysian contingents were fined for smoking and causing damage to property at last year's Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Incheon Asian Games.

"There's no Games Village so it will be a challenge for us to monitor the athletes.

"But if the team managers do their job, everything will be fine," said Norza.

"I don't want tourists in the contingent, I want everyone to know and do their jobs. The team managers should perform spot-checks to ensure everything is in order. I want the athletes and officials to keep in mind that they are representing the country and I want everyone to be disciplined.

"I have told my deputy Peter Chee to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the contingent.

"The athletes and officials will be briefed on the SOP in the final phase of the centralised training camp at the IOI Resort in Putrajaya from May 22-24," added Norza.