AAAA proceeds with Asian C'ships despite Hasan case

AAAA proceeds with Asian C'ships despite Hasan case

JAKARTA (JP): The Asian Amateur Athletics Association (AAAA)
will proceed with its program to stage the Asian Athletics
Championships and its congress here despite the detention of its
president, Mohammad Bob Hasan, by the Indonesian government after
he was named a suspect in a US$87 million corruption scandal.

AAAA secretary-general Maurice Nicholas told The Jakarta Post
from Singapore that he had called the Indonesian Amateur
Athletics Association's (PASI) office on Wednesday and told them
to continue with preparations.

"Nothing has changed regards the preparations, even with the
scandal," he said. "It's too early to comment on the matter but
he has not been charged yet."

Speaking about Hasan's candidacy for his third term as
president of AAAA, Nicholas said that so far there was no other
nominee to replace the timber tycoon, who is also former
president Soeharto's golf buddy.

The deadline for presidential candidates is May 2. Hasan will
end his second term in August.

AAAA had sent notification letters to its 43 member countries
earlier this month asking them to submit a nomination three
months prior to the AAAA congress, as one of the items on its
agenda is to elect a new president at the Jakarta Convention
Center on Aug. 2.

Should Hasan be reelected as chairman, he will equal the
record of his predecessor, Seiko Yasuda of Japan, who also was
the chairman for three consecutive terms.

President of the International Amateur Athletics Federation
(IAAF) Lamine Diack of Senegal is scheduled to attend the
congress and also to witness the Asian Athletics Championships
from Aug. 3 to Aug. 6 at Senayan Madya stadium.

Indonesia was the only country which bid to host the event.
After the deadline two years ago, Sri Lanka and Malaysia offered
to host the event.

Hasan, who once chaired the Indonesian Forest Concessionaires
Association (APHI), was party to a contract with the then
forestry ministry to perform aerial mapping and airborne radar
imaging of the country's forestry resources in 1997.

The $87 million contract was carried out by PT Mapindo Parma
and the money was paid out of the government's reforestation
fund.

Hasan is also a member of the International Olympics Committee
and vice president of the Olympics Committee of Asia.

Separately, PASI official in charge of foreign affairs Barmawi
Chaidir shared the same idea.

"The show must go on. We will stage the championships here.
PASI has secretary-general Tigor Tanjung and official in charge
of organization and provincial chapters Kunarto to take care of
the problem," he said.

Chaidir said PASI was still waiting for the reaction of other
AAAA members to the news.

"It's been aired on CNN, BBC and others. Let's just wait and
see what their reaction will be."

He also said that there had yet to be any meeting in the
organization to discuss on the matter and to decide the
caretaker.

"We still have no intention of having an internal meeting.
Maybe it's necessary to have one but we still have no idea about
what's going on."

The National Sports Council (KONI) secretary-general, Rudolf S
Warouw, regretted the detention.

"I still haven't contacted PASI but I'm sure it has a special
mechanism for such situations. We just hope everything goes well
prior to the Asian Championships," he said. (yan)