A new era in sports
A new era in sports
As a daily reader of The Jakarta Post, as well as an avid
sports fan, I have enjoyed the sports page feature which has
appeared daily over the past two weeks highlighting different
sports in which Indonesia will participate in for the upcoming
SEA Games. These features have given me much insight into
Indonesian badminton, football, basketball, boxing, tennis, table
tennis, swimming, golf, shooting, athletics, track and field
(including pole vaulting and discus throwing), bowling, water
polo, traditional boat racing, field hockey, billiards and
snooker, cycling, squash, karate, pencak silat, tae kwon do and
sepak takraw.
It is also exciting to learn that the head of the Indonesian
National Sports Committee (KONI), Wismoyo Arismunandar, has been
able to acquire additional funding of Rp 2 billion to add to the
Rp 10 billion already donated by Bappenas and the Senayan
Management Board. With this Rp 12 billion, Indonesia can now send
more than 400 athletes to Brunei Darussalam to compete in the 10-
day event.
Since KONI is only sending athletes that it believes can win
medals, it is terribly disappointing that wrestling has not been
included in these games as this is undoubtedly Indonesia's best
kept sports secret. I mean, I have yet to meet one single
solitary person who has ever heard of the Indonesian Wrestling
Association, but surely, with private donations totaling more
than Rp 13 billion, the IWA must be producing some truly world-
class wrestlers.
I have been wondering about this for some time and it has
finally dawned on me what Andi Ghalib, Chairman of the IWA, and
his billions for wrestling are up to. The SEA Games? Forget it!
Who cares? I'll probably find someone who's heard of the
Indonesian Wrestling Association before I find someone who cares
one iota about the SEA Games. Saving the surprise for the 2000
Summer Olympics? Absolutely not! The Olympic Organizing Committee
is too riddled with corruption for Indonesia's former attorney
general to have anything to do with it and besides, the "Summer"
Olympics will be held during the winter in Australia and that
deceitful ploy has collusion written all over it.
The answer? Prime-time TV! We're talking satellite, cable
links, pay-perview! The WCW is going to be headlocked, eye-
gouged, and thrown out of the ring when the all new IWA, in
association with the Kangaroo Kourt Network, hits the airwaves.
Say goodbye to those has-been sissies like Bubba Braindead and
Gomer Bonehead, and say hello to the new order in professional
wrestling!
Brace yourselves for the knee knocking nervousness, the
kinetic karate nihilism, and the kinky knavery ad nausea of one
of the most accomplished and respected figures in the history of
the sport. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome to the
ring, the future hall of famer and living icon of professional
wrestling, the king of kickback nonparallel, that kooky kaiser of
nonchalance, karma killing nimbus, knucklehead know-nothing
numskull, and knights of kleptomania nominee, the undisputed IWF
champion Andi "The Untouchable" Ghalib! Tonight's bout pits the
champ against a powerless, but determined destroyer of the status
quo, Teten "Corruptor Buster" Masduki.
It is all so unbelievably brilliant! Really, just imagine the
prefight hype with Ghalib and Masduki slinging accusations and
death threats all over the place and calling each other all sorts
of offensive and abusive names. It is fantastic! The whole planet
will be tuned in! Indonesia will become the professional
wrestling capital of the entire world.
Ultimately, justice will be served, and Andi Ghalib will be
awarded the same respect for his integrity and transparency that
the great sport of professional wrestling so rightfully enjoys.
MARSHALL LESESNE
Jakarta