Ferry Sonneville has dreams for talented youths

Ferry Sonneville has dreams for talented youths

By Ivy Susanti

JAKARTA (JP): Many people at age 70 enjoy their retirement
with their offsprings. When they meet fellow senior citizens,
they spend time recalling their good old days.

But this does not apply to Ferdinand Alexander Sonneville,
better known as Ferry Sonneville, a former top badminton player
who turned 70 on Jan. 3.

Born in Jakarta on Jan. 3, 1931, Ferry is determined to spend
the rest of his life doing his best for the country's youth.

He has a lot of plans in mind. In February, he will be staging
a grand reunion of top national athletes, both retired and
active. He is also planning to launch a foundation called Yayasan
Prestasi Anak Bangsa to help the young and talented, particularly
athletes.

In his opinion, both retired and current athletes should
unite.

On the foundation, he said, "We will not be working alone in
this foundation. We will be cooperating with other qualified
institutions."

The activities of the foundation will range from giving
financial support to poor youths, staging competitions and
securing loans for former athletes who cannot afford to start
their own business.

The reunion is meant to raise public appreciation of athletes.

"We want people to lend a hand to former athletes who are poor
because these athletes had done a lot for the good of the nation
in international sports events.

"We also want to boost our young athletes' spirit in pursuing
a career in sports. We have to create a conducive environment
for them to develop their skills. We have to become the driving
force," he said.

Badminton hero

Indonesians know Ferry as a badminton hero and patron in the
1950s and 1960s. He is so religious that he attributes anything
he achieves to the grace of God.

His most memorable game was probably the 1964 Thomas Cup
"battle" in Tokyo when Ferry played Erland Kops of Denmark in the
men's singles. He almost gave up in the second set after he lost
the first.

The second half when Kops reached match point 14 while Ferry
was trailing at six was suspense filled. Ferry dropped on his
knees on the court and prayed for strength. Ferry turned the
table "miraculously". He eventually beat Kops and the Indonesia
team won the Cup for the third time in a row after 1958 and 1961.
He repeated the success in 1967.

After he retired as a badminton player, he chaired the
Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) from 1981 to 1985 and
chaired the International Badminton Federation for three working
terms from 1971 to 1974.

While he was chairman of the international federation, he
initiated the introduction of badminton as an exhibition game in
the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany when the game was
little known then.

Ferry was one of the founders of the National Sports Council
(KONI) and became its vice chairman in 1970.

He also became board member of several regional and
international sports bodies such as the Southeast Asian and Asian
Games Federations.

Ferry grew up in a sports-loving family. His father, Dirk Jan
Sonneville was a tennis player and his mother, Leony Elisabeth,
Hubeek was a badminton player.

He learned to play badminton in 1942 from his mother who used
to bring him to a nearby court for practice. He met Yvonne
Theresia while practicing. They got married in 1955 before
leaving for the Netherlands. They have two daughters Theresia
Bryan-Sonneville and Cynthia Gwendolyn and had a son, Ferdinand
Rudy, who died of illness in London in 1976

In the Netherlands, Ferry attended the Nederlandse Economische
Hogeschool, now Erasmus University, in Rotterdam.

Yvonne used to praise Ferry as an honest person, a trait which
had attracted her to him. She recalls that at the beginning, it
was her brothers who practiced badminton with Ferry, not her.

"I also used to play badminton. I once paired with Pak Ferry
in the mixed doubles in a Thomas Cup match, but we were not
successful. At that time my son was already two years old," said
Yvonne.

Ferry also learned pencak silat when he was five. At 20, he
became a jujitsu instructor. Among his students were Marshall
Oetomo, former Navy chief of staff and Indonesian ambassador to
Spain Faisal Abda'oe, Pertamina's president director and Surjadi
Soedirdja, the minister of home affairs and regional autonomy.
Ferry is currently the chairman of the Indonesian Jujitsu club.

Economy sector

Few people know of Ferry's contribution to the country's
economy. His overseas studies and sporting experiences had
sharpened his lobbying skills.

He recalled that when Indonesia was at its lowest ebb in 1964,
inflation reached 635 percent, its export value a mere US$500
million and the country had almost no foreign exchange reserve.

"When we returned after winning the Thomas Cup in Tokyo,
President Sukarno asked me in Dutch 'What can I do for you?'. So
I asked him to invite my former mentor Professor Jan Tinbergen.
He came in late 1964.

In early 1966, Pak Radius (Prawiro) was appointed the
central bank governor and he cooperated with Widjojo
(Nitisastro), Ali (Wardhana) and Emil Salim to improve the
economy.

"All of us met and strategized on how to improve the
Indonesian economy."

"So on Oct. 3, 1966, the economics team issued the 'Oct. 3,
1966 policy' which was supported by the Intergovernmental Group
on Indonesia (IGGI). Jan helped in convincing the Dutch
government of our economic prospect and we finally got some $200
million loan.

In the following years, the inflation gradually reduced to 125
percent, followed by a further 25 percent and then lower still,"
he said.

The Dutch-chaired IGGI was disbanded in 1992 following a
diplomatic row in which Indonesia under president Soeharto
accused the Dutch of using the aid as a tool to apply political
pressure on the country.

Ferry also became involved in politics in the 1960s when Gen.
Abdul Harris Nasution -- the then vice supreme Armed Forces
commander -- asked him to help secure the New Order government
under Soeharto.

"Together with my colleagues like Pak Junus Jahja and Ibu
Surya Dharma, we met with president Sukarno. We told him we
wanted to set up a university which could accommodate people from
different political, religious, racial, ethnic, social and
cultural backgrounds."

In 1967, Ferry received financial aid from the Dutch
government to set up PT Djasa Ubersakti and he channeled most of
aid to the Trisakti Foundation which runs Trisakti University.

Last Thursday, the university had a special lecture called
"Develop the children of the nation" at its campus in Grogol,
West Jakarta to mark Ferry's 70th birthday.

Ferry is very concerned about the education system in
Indonesia.

"Our human resources are very much behind those of other
countries and our poor education system is to blame. People can
only parrot their leaders because for years education was the
ruling regime's tool (to achieve its political ends)," he said.