Controversial Tapornas

Controversial Tapornas

From Media Indonesia

The debate on the issue of National Sports Achievements
Savings (Tapornas) is heated again. Tapornas, introduced by
Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman, is a fund
raising drive carried out to finance the national sports
activities. The problem is that the minister needs a large amount
of money to finance the sports activities and the government's
fund allotted to this sector is limited. So efforts should be
made to stimulate the community to keep aside a small percentage
of their money to finance national sports.

Several fund raising schemes, including the SDSB lottery and
Social Philanthropic Contribution with Prizes, have been tried.
SDSB has already been banned because it was categorized as
gambling which is forbidden by religion.

Some view Tapornas as very much like SDSB. To attract
depositors, a portion of money obtained by the difference in
interest rate is raffled. The bank account number that wins gets
the prize. There is further concern that if the winning number is
announced to public, people may then bet on predictions of the
winning number. To avoid this, it is better that the organizer
announces the name of the depositor instead of the number of the
bank account. Then Tapornas (should it be implemented) will not
become a source of gambling activities.

HIMAWAN ADI ATMAJA

Depok, West Java