Bickering arises over candidates for PBSI top job

Bickering arises over candidates for PBSI top job

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta

While having succeeded in forcing Chairul Tanjung to resign
his chairmanship of the country's badminton governing body, the
PBSI, which is expected to officially take place on Saturday, the
five members of the working group charged with finding a new
chairman look to have started bickering among themselves over who
will replace Chairul.

Chairul was forced to relinquish his post as chairman of the
PBSI after being found incompetent.

The PBSI will hold an extraordinary meeting on Saturday to
find a replacement for Chairul.

However, things appear to be getting heated in the run-up to
the meeting.

The problems have arisen following the nomination of media
tycoon Dahlan Iskan by the East Java chapter, whose chairman
Yacob Rusdianto is a member of the working group.

The other four members are Icuk Sugiarto (Jakarta), Johannes
IW (North Sumatra), Koesdarto Pramono (Central Java) and Mustafa
Djide (South Sulawesi).

Dahlan's nomination was announced on Saturday, a move that
appeared to irritate Icuk, who has thrown his weight behind
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso.

The 1983 world champion said on Monday he had been betrayed by
the other members, whom he claimed had agreed on Sutiyoso as the
sole candidate for the post.

"When we met Pak Try Sutrisno last week, he said that Sutiyoso
was the perfect man for the job," Icuk said.

Try Sutrisno, a former PBSI chairman from 1985 to 1993, is
acting as a mediator in PBSI's pursuit of a replacement for
Chairul.

"I didn't expect that the working group would add to the list
of candidates. I only heard that East Java would submit Yacob as
the candidate. All of a sudden, the chapter announced Pak Dahlan
Iskan as the candidate instead," Icuk said.

"We have agreed that we should nominate a candidate who is of
better quality than the previous chairman, or at least is no
worse than him," he said, adding that Sutiyoso had received
pledges of support from around 20 provincial chapters.

Meanwhile, Yacob Rusdianto and Johannes IW held a separate
press conference on Monday to contradict Icuk's statement.

"Who says we only have to submit the name of one candidate at
the extraordinary meeting?

"If the working group were only to submit one name to the
meeting because that was the only person who was capable of
serving as PBSI chairman, then that would be good ..., but if
there is more than one person who is up to the task, why don't we
accommodate this?" Johannes said.

He said that it would be better to have more than one
candidate as people would have options about who they thought was
best suited for the job.