Chairul elected new boss of PBSI
Chairul elected new boss of PBSI
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After several heated arguments and failing earlier in the
evening to elect a chairman, the Badminton Association of
Indonesia (PBSI) elected businessman Chairul Tanjung at about
10:40 p.m. Saturday night.
The election should have started at 7:30 pm but the
participants were divided on how to do the elections.
When thr voting finally began, Chairul ended up winning by
a landslide vote of 252 votes against Justian Suhandinata's
13 votes.
The congress started on Friday and is scheduled to end on
Sunday at Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta.
Participants from the Jakarta chapter demanded it to be done
secretly in a ballot room while the majority preferred it to be
done openly.
The election was marred by an incident when participants from
Jakarta chapter and its five branches decided to walk out of the
venue over a heated argument over whether the election should be
done openly or secretly.
Before the congress participants voted, 20 PBSI chapters have
openly expressed their support for Chairul to be the next
chairman replacing the incumbent Subagyo Hadisiswoyo who had
announced his refusal for renomination.
The other candidate, Justian, got support from Jakarta,
Lampung, Irian Jaya, East Nusa Tenggara and North Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, four other chapters of Aceh, Bengkulu, Riau and
South Kalimantan did not state their support openly.
The chapters expressed their support during their evaluation
of the performance of Subagyo's 1997-2001 period.
Most of the chapters said they were satisfied with Subagyo's
achievements while pointing out some weaknesses to be remedied by
the next chairman.
Subagyo admitted that there were several shortcomings, such as
the failure to groom the women shuttlers and failure to send more
shuttlers abroad.
But he put the blame on the condition during his tenure in
which the rupiah was extremely weakened against the U.S. dollar.
"I started the job with Rp 2,500 against a dollar but suddenly
it rocketed to some Rp 15,000," he told the participants.
"But on the other hand, we managed to have the Thomas Cup
twice in 1998 and 2000. We also continued our gold medal
tradition at the Sydney Olympics."
"And we also have two world champion titles with all the
financial shortages," he continued.
Separately in Bung Karno Badminton Stadium, all national
shuttlers from the Indonesian Badminton Center (PBI) have ensured
four titles by filling all final berths except for the men's
singles title.
The only outsider was Taufik Hidayat, who is a member of the
elite training camp, now representing West Java chapter after
resigning from PBI over a dispute about his participation in the
Danish Open.
Seeded first here, Taufik defeated his former team mate,
second stringer Rony Agustinus 7-3, 7-5, 7-4 showing that he is
still an asset for Indonesia's badminton society.
Taufik will then see junior Sony Dwi Kuncoro who beat team
mate Anggun Nugroho 7-0, 8-6, 7-2.
Sony is actually still in the junior division but PBSI decided
to play all of its national junior shuttlers to play in the
senior division.
In the women's singles, second seed Yuli Marfuah of West Java
was the only upset when junior shuttler Dian Novita took a 7-4,
7-3, 7-0 victory.
Dian will now challenge top seed Atu Rosalina who beat another
junior Silvi Antarini 7-4 7-3, 0-7, 7-3.
Top seeds Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto will face teammates
Nova Widhianto and Bambang Suprianto who are seeded second in the
men's doubles while Emma Ermawati and Eny Widiowati will
challenge top seeds Minarti Timur and Vita Marissa in the women's
doubles.
Bambang will team up with Emma in the mixed doubles to face
Tri Kusheryanto who will pair up with Vita.