Basketball meet to honor Sukarno

JAKARTA (JP): A nine-day student basketball competition will be held in Jakarta in remembrance of the country's founding president, Sukarno.

Committee chairman Ary Sudarsono said on Wednesday that 81 school and university teams from greater Jakarta area had confirmed their entries.

With cheer leader and poetry reading contests coinciding with the basketball tournament, the organizers will draw no less than 1,000 participants to the Senayan Basketball Hall, Ary said.

The Sept. 19-27 event is organized by the Soekarno Foundation for Education, which celebrates its 17th anniversary on Sept. 27. It will be the first sporting event the foundation has ever hosted.

Ary said the basketball tournament will be divided into three age groups, comprising junior high school, senior high school and university categories. The participating teams will play knock- out matches.

"Winners of both genders will not receive cash prizes but medals and certificates which bear Sukarno's picture," Ary said.

A number of top pop singers will also add spice to the event with their patriotic singing performances in the opening ceremony.

"We are expecting a cheerful event, while at the same time we want people to always remember Bung Karno (Sukarno's popular name)," Ary said.

The organizers will have a number of stands around the venue, where they will sell books written by Sukarno, his pictures, souvenirs and T-shirts.

Chairperson of the foundation, Rachmawati Soekarnoputri, who is one of Sukarno's daughters, said her father's favorite saying of mensana in corporesano had inspired her to hold the basketball competition.

She said she was concerned about Indonesia's poor performance in sports over the past few decades.

"Compared to the likes of Mohammad Sarengat and Anwar Ramang in their heyday in the 1960s, our athletes who are the product of the New Order come up short of international laurels. Our sport has been in decline during the past 32 years," Rachmawati said.

She said money was not the answer, as the country's sporting legends had proved.

"I believe the only solution to improving our sporting achievements is to encourage athletes to dedicate themselves to the country and not compete for the money," Rachmawati said. (lnt)