Repeating the old folly<\/p>\n
The low-profile National Sports Council is now back on a high-
\nvoltage mission to raise funds for the country's sports
\nactivities. By the end of the campaign in 2008, the council
\nexpects to raise Rp 100 billion (US$7.14 million).<\/p>\n
After bitter experiences in the same effort for many years,
\nwhich were often marked by public protests, the council and the
\ngovernment decided last year that the best way to finance sports
\nevents and development was through involving the public.<\/p>\n
The decision was made against the backdrop of the corruption
\nscandal in the fund-raising campaign for the 19th Southeast Asia
\n(SEA) Games last year. Telephone, water and electricity users,
\nairplane passengers and car owners, who had been forced by the
\nauthorities to buy stickers in the name of fund-raising
\nactivities, were deeply dismayed by the shameful sham, which
\nremains under police investigation.<\/p>\n
And still fresh in the people's minds is the 1993 abolishment
\nof the controversial SDSB government-sponsored national lottery
\nat the hands of all sections of society in a campaign spearheaded
\nby Moslem leaders.<\/p>\n
The protest against SDSB, and the lottery preceding it, had
\ndragged on for many years because the authorities had turned a
\ndeaf ear to the public's objections. The people only won the war
\nafter a change in the situation which gave Moslems more political
\nmuscle.<\/p>\n
According to the newly introduced program, dubbed the Sports
\nAwareness Campaign, funds will be raised through selling numbered
\ncoupons, costing Rp 5,000. The council's use of \"lottery\" to
\ndescribe the scheme does not appear to be a slip of the tongue
\nbecause the nature of the venture is just that.<\/p>\n
The trouble is that it is not easy, at least for the council
\nofficials, to pinpoint the difference between a lottery and
\ngambling, which is against Islamic law. In the past, including
\nwhen SDSB was buried, many agreed that if some venture tempts
\npeople to try to win a huge sum by paying a little, then it is
\ngambling. It sells but a dream, and in the past was guilty of
\nvictimizing many less educated members of society.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Ulemas Council appears to share the same
\nopinion as it declared its opposition to the council's new
\nventure on Monday. The statement may ring the death knell for the
\nscheme before it even started. And combined with this is the
\ntestimony of several sports event organizers, who have vouched
\nthat it is almost impossible to draw 100,000 spectators a year to
\nlocal sports events, even when they are free of charge.<\/p>\n
We fully understand the council's sincerity in its effort to
\nimprove the nation's achievements in sports, still comparatively
\nlow in Asia. But the idea to raise funds through the public in
\nthe midst of the economic collapse would be taxing on already
\npoor Indonesians.<\/p>\n
The council apparently needs to get in touch with what the
\nmajority of people are feeling -- its fund-raising concept would
\nbe tantamount to taxing the overburdened public. Besides, our
\npeople are still haunted by the lack of transparency in the
\nmanagement of the council's past fund-raising activities, so
\ninfested with greedy manipulators.<\/p>\n
There might be those who welcome the lottery because they
\ndream of buying a Rp 26.5 billion mansion in an idyllic area of
\nEast Jakarta, but we are not supposed to repeat our ugly history.
\nNot in a more disastrous way.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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