ATI, KTI gives mixed response to BP-POPI plan
ATI, KTI gives mixed response to BP-POPI plan
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia has moved toward reinstating the Professional Sports
Supervising and Controlling Body (BP-POPI) following a six-month
ban slapped on the country's professional boxers by the World
Boxing Federation (WBC).
The Indonesian Boxing Association (ATI) hailed the move, with
its chairman Manahan Situmorang saying that he hoped it would be
able to overhaul professional boxing in Indonesia.
"The national interest should be a priority. So I leave the
task to the government to initiate a policy aimed at improving
the conditions of professional boxing in Indonesia," Manahan told
The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
BP-POPI was dissolved last year after its umbrella
institution, the state ministry of sports and youth affairs
office, was terminated. The body covered not only boxing but
other professional sports.
The high number of boxing deaths in Indonesia over the past 18
months was the reason for the WBC ban, the reestablishment of BP-
POPI is expected to regain the international body's trust.
Blaming the incidents on the lack of boxer supervision and
human error, BP-POPI is seeking to step up supervision on the
boxing organization.
It is also likely to make itself the only authority to issue
licenses for promoters, managers, coaches and boxers, which means
taking away a number of roles currently taken by ATI and its
long-standing counterpart KTI, the Indonesian Boxing Commission.
"We are ready to enter a new era. If ATI should be liquidated,
then go ahead," Manahan said.
ATI was founded in 1999 by breakaway KTI officials.
Despite agreeing in principle to the government's planned
move, KTI appeared to be more cautious about the prospect.
"As far as it is for the sake of national interest, we will be
supportive. But at the moment we are waiting to see what the
supervisory body will do next," Ebert Hutagalung, deputy chairman
of KTI, said from Bandung, West Java.
"If it is to issue licenses, will there be any guarantee that
boxing deaths will be avoided?" he said.
Meanwhile, a government official said talks on the issue would
be held on Tuesday.
"With there being various pros and cons in the plan, we feel
it is important that we reach a settlement so that no side feels
robbed of its function and we can get through the transitional
phase," said Iskandar Adisapoetra, secretary of the directorate
general at the Ministry of National Education.
"We will discuss the mechanism, with a view to giving
Indonesian professional boxing a better future," he said.
With the prospect for other international bodies, such as the
World Boxing Association (WBA), and International Boxing
Federation (IBF) to follow suit, Manahan sees the ban as a
serious threat to the development of professional boxing.
"It is not the boxing bodies that suffer but the boxers, who
have to make a living by fighting," he said.
But Ebert opined differently.
"I don't see it as a serious issue, because we have rarely
been involved in OPBF fights. Our latest date with the OPBF was
back in 1994," he said.
"We can fight under other bodies," he said, specifically
mentioning the Pan Asia Boxing Association (PABA), an affiliate
of the WBA.
He pointed to the 2000 PABA convention, which had not raised
the issue of boxing deaths in Indonesia.