The games was opened and closed by Sultan Azlan Shah, the King of Malaysia at the Stadium Merdeka.

The official 1989 SEA Games mascot was an anthropomorphic turtle named Johan.

The logo for the Games features 6 elliptical rings alternately colored red and blue to form a shape that resembles a spinning top, or locally called gasing.

[3] "Reach for the sky" ("Kini Saatnya" in Malay) was the official theme song of the 1989 Southeast Asian Games.

The host Malaysia's performance was their best ever yet in Southeast Asian Games History and were placed only second to Indonesia as overall champion.