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.