Challenges keep me alive: M.F. Siregar
By Ivy Susanti
JAKARTA (JP): "I like sports. I like people. I like to do the utmost because I have been given the talent by God," Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar says of his life principle.
Young people may associate Siregar, who will turn 73 on Nov. 11, with badminton for his post as the official in charge of athlete development at the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI). But his contribution to sports development goes much further.
His white hair is thinning and his back is slightly hunched, yet his voice is still loud and clear when he discusses his passion for life. He spends 20 minutes every day working out, another 20 minutes walking around a tennis court near his home and 45 minutes on a stationary bicycle.
He is an opa (grandfather) not only to his eight grandchildren but also to all the young shuttlers and journalists he works with.
"I always go to the Indonesian Badminton Center (in Cipayung, East Jakarta) to talk to the shuttlers and coaches but not the PBSI officials. I feel like I live there and I'm very happy to be there," he told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview at his residence in Kemanggisan, West Jakarta.
"I like to talk with (the shuttlers), motivate them, so I know what there complaints are. I don't preach to them with lots of theories. I regard them all as my friends."
The Jakarta-born Siregar has witnessed the rise and fall of the country's sport development, and is still willing to lend a hand.
His love affair with sports began when he was studying at a Hollands Inlandsche School (Dutch elementary school for indigenous Indonesians during the Dutch colonial era) in 1941.
"I took care of everything having to do with sports in school until I entered the junior high school in Jakarta," he recalled. He graduated from a state-owned junior high school here in 1946 and went to high school in Bandung, West Java, graduating in 1950.
He continued his studies at the Akademi Pendidikan Jasmani (Physical Education Academy) in Bandung, and graduated in 1954. The following year he married Darliah Nasution, who was three years his junior. Darliah passed away in Adelaide, Australia, on Sept. 30, 2000. The couple had four daughters and a son.
Siregar received his master's in physical education from Springfield College in Massachusetts, the United States, in 1964.
Coach
He began work at the Physical Educators School in Bandung in 1954 and was registered as a civil servant at the then Ministry of Education and Culture, now the Ministry of National Education.
His coaching career began in the pool. He spent 35 years beginning in 1952 as a swimming and water polo coach.
"I coached the swim team because I like swimming. Later, I played tennis and was appointed as an official with the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti) .... I was the youngest Indonesian to be in any sports organization and the oldest coach in the country."
Siregar was the secretary and the official in charge of research and development at the Jakarta chapter of Pelti from 1994 to 1998 and is still an adviser to the association. He has also been an adviser to the Indonesian Rowing Association since 1997.
At PBSI, he began in the athlete development division in 1989 and his first job was to head the training program for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the association's board of advisers, before returning to his current post.
But it was during his years as a coach that Siregar left his mark on sports in Indonesia, though few people are aware of his achievements. But he certainly remembers, and can point exactly to his two favorite memories.
"The first is the ninth Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in 1977 in Kuala Lumpur, when we took 19 golds from 14 men's events and 13 women's events in our first time participating in the regional event. I was the coach and the chief of the technical committee for the Indonesian Swimming Association (PRSI).
"The second is when Susi Susanti won the country's first (Olympic) gold medal in Barcelona."
Siregar can recall every step along Susi's path to the gold, starting with the training period with the other shuttlers, including her husband Alan Budikusumah, who won gold in the men's singles, men's singles silver medalist Ardy Bernardus Wiranata, men's doubles silver medalists Eddy Hartono and Gunawan, and men's singles bronze medalist Hermawan Susanto.
"I had to have medical treatment for two coronary arteries at the San Francisco Heart Institute prior to the Olympics. I only completed one. I told the doctor, 'I want to go to Barcelona.' The doctor would not allow me at first. Then I told him, 'Who do you think has control over my life? If it's my time to die, then I will die.' So the doctor gave me his permission to go, with some conditions: I had to be accompanied by a medic and I was not allowed to watch any of the events.
"I went to Barcelona with my family doctor, Dr. Soetrisno, my personal driver, who was my fourth child Ria Marina, and my late wife. I promised the doctor to stay away from the competition but he allowed me to visit the athletes village the night before the matches began."
Siregar says that in his meeting with the team, he told them not to rely on Susi to get the gold medal, that everybody had the same opportunity to make history. He went home on July 26 when the badminton event started. He said he was not allowed to watch the TV or read the paper, but he was eager to get the badminton results.
The chance came when he was walking at Madya Stadium in Senayan, Central Jakarta. He asked former shuttler and now mixed doubles coach Richard Mainaky to help him get news of the latest developments.
"I asked Richard to go back and forth between the PBSI Secretariat on Jl. Asia Afrika. If Richard raised one thumb it would mean the shuttlers had gone to the semifinals, two thumbs meant the final and if he waived both his hands that meant we won gold. That is how I knew what we achieved on Aug. 4."
There may be no tear in his eyes, but he has nine photos of Susi's tearful expression on the podium when she received the medal.
"Kompas daily (on Aug. 5) quoted Susi as saying, 'I dedicate this title to Pak Siregar.' No other paper ever wrote that."
'Panji Olahraga'
Siregar has spent half his life at the Ministry of Sports and the Office of the State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, serving as the ministry's assistant for sports affairs in 1966 and from 1983 to 1988.
He is also the formulator of the Panji Olahraga (Sports Flag), which was introduced by former president Soeharto during the fourth national congress of the National Sports Council (KONI) on Jan. 19, 1981. It has for years served as a guide for sports development and education.
"We have Panji Olahraga as the foundation of Indonesia's sports development. Panji Olahraga is about how to involve the community in sports development and how to popularize sports in the community.
"The then minister of education and culture, Daoed Joesoef, reminded us to make the community aware of the meaning of sports.
"The leader of the country, sports officials have been given this guidance. But there is something wrong with our sports system in 2001. Why? Because the guidance is not well implemented, it fails to generate a system based on standard procedures."
The most important part of the system lies in schools and clubs where athletes are born and mature, he said.
"Students are in their productive years and they can be assets for sports. Millions of people learn about sports during their elementary school years."
He said there should be a new vision shared by both the government and those involved in developing sports.
Earlier this year, former national education minister Yahya Muhaimin named Siregar chairman of the National Committee of Physical Education and Sports.
Siregar said the first step toward a more sports-oriented community was to introduce sports to children as early as kindergarten and elementary school.
"I don't care how much time is allocated for sports in schools. I just want it to begin now."
It is difficult to stop Siregar once he starts talking about sports development. "I don't get bored talking about this topic. I don't get upset if people refuse to learn or to take action. I don't regard my efforts as a job, and I have no deadline. And I don't belittle other people if they reject my ideas."
He said he preferred to talk in informal situations. Then he showed a photo of himself, as KONI's secretary-general, sitting beside Soeharto in a packed Madya Stadium after the opening of a track and field event in June 1980. He says it was at that moment that he introduced the Panji Olahraga idea to the president.
"Whenever I have time to meet people, I talk about my ideas. I don't want other people to feel like I'm lecturing. I think I am whispering more to the leaders than talking."
He quipped that it was difficult to find people like him, who were willing to share their thoughts and work without requiring payment.
"Why do I want to do this? Because I think it's the best thing I can do with my life. I just can't sit down and do nothing. I like a challenge. I would die quickly if there were no challenges."