Govt asked to act immediately on sports bill

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Following Indonesia's debacle in the recent Asian Games, the House of Representatives (DPR) asked the government on Thursday to immediately assign a representative to conduct negotiations on the sports bill.

"We submitted the sports draft law to the government immediately after we held our plenary session in September. It's been more than one month since then but there has been no response yet from the government," Ferdiansyah, a legislator from House Commission VI on human resources and religious affairs, said after a hearing with officials from the Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) and the Ministry of National Education here on Thursday.

"We (the House) have done our duty ... now the ball is in the government's court as to how it will respond to the bill. We could have met and talked the matter over during the hearings in October, but there was no word from them. We take this to mean the government lacks interest in sport," he said.

Toho Cholik Mutohir, the sports director general at the Ministry of National Education, confirmed that his office had not been tasked by the government to get involved in the deliberation of the bill.

"While waiting for a government directive, the sports directorate general has been looking into the bill and we already have something to offer as regards its improvement," he said.

Ferdiansyah said that Commission VI hoped that the bill would be finalized during the next session of the House in April.

"After a certain period of socialization, the bill, hopefully, can be enacted after the fourth session," he said. The fourth session runs through May and June of next year.

The introduction of a sports law has become an imperative given the fact that Indonesian sporting prowess has been declining steadily over the past three years during which time the national squad has appeared unable to withstand challenges at the Asian and South East Asian level, let alone at world events such as the Olympics.

During the last two SEA Games in 1999 and 2001, Indonesia not only relinquished its domination to Thailand, but it also finished unprecedentedly behind Malaysia, a relative minnow.

During the 2002 Asian Games, Indonesia returned home with only four gold medals -- as well as seven silver and 12 bronze medals -- one third less than its haul in Bangkok four years ago.

In each case, lack of funds has been blamed. As KONI chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar explained, funding worries distracted the athletes from their preparations.

"Every time we plan to participate in a multi-event tournament, we are in for a difficult time raising money to fund the preparations of the athletes," Wismoyo said, adding that the failure of funds to become available on time also delayed the start of preparations.

"We have come to the House many times (for a hearing) but we have yet to be assured about its seriousness in meeting the financial needs of our international commitments," he said.

Ferdiansyah said the enactment of the sports bill could be expected to help alleviate the financial constraints given that the bill contains a clause on state budget funding.