The 1998 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVI Commonwealth Games, was a multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 1998 games were the first held in an Asian country and the last Commonwealth Games of the 20th century. For the first time ever, the games included team sports. The other bid from the 1998 games came from Adelaide in Australia. Malaysia was the eighth nation to host the Commonwealth Games after Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Wales, Jamaica and Scotland. Around 3638 athletes from 70 Commonwealth member nations participated at the games which featured 214 events in 15 sports with 34 of them collected medals.

Tuanku Ja’afar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman was Yang Di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan from 1967 until his death in 2008, and previously the tenth Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the constitutional monarch of Malaysia, from 1994 to 1999.