Govt intervenes in professional boxing chaos
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government, through the Ministry of Education, is to lend a helping hand to try to explain the situation concerning the country's much-criticized professional boxing set-up to the WBC (World Boxing Council) convention in Pattaya, Thailand, next month.
Iskandar Z. Adisapoetra, the secretary to the director general of sports at the ministry, will be dispatched to Thailand with the mission of saving Indonesia from the looming threat of disciplinary action by the WBC and its Asia Pacific affiliate, the OPBF.
The WBC annual meeting will take place from Dec. 2 through Dec. 8.
The action, which could prompt Indonesia's expulsion from the world of international boxing, has been in the offing ever since the WBC and OPBF charged that five deaths over the past 18 months during ring fights was unacceptable.
"I myself will speak on behalf of the government of Indonesia," Iskandar told reporters at the headquarters of the National Sports Council (KONI) here on Friday.
The meeting was attended by a number of KONI officials led by chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar, and representatives from both the KTI (Indonesia Boxing Commission) and ATI (Indonesia Boxing Association).
"We are going to clarify what has happened in the country's pro boxing in such a way that no demotion of Indonesian boxing will take place," Iskandar said.
Representatives from around 160 countries are expected to attend the convention.
Being far removed from his normal responsibilities, the mission led by Iskandar could be seen as a move to absolve the KTI, under whose auspices the deadly boxing contests were organized, of any charges of negligence.
"This is something we have to do on behalf of the nation. We must speak with one united voice," Iskandar said, adding that a team would immediately be established to look into ring fatalities. He expressed the hope that the team would be provided with all the information it needed for the report it would draw up for presentation to the convention.
The ATI denied any involvement in the issue, saying that it was the KTI which organized the much-criticized boxing contests.
"I want to emphasize that the ring contests in question were not our responsibility," ATI Chairman Manahan Situmorang said, adding that he would go to Pattaya himself.
Meanwhile, Chandru G. Lalwani, a WBC representative in Indonesia, hailed the move by the government but doubted its grasp of the substantial issues at stake.
Friday's meeting also mooted the idea of establishing a state commission to increase the supervisory role of the government over the country's pro-boxing industry.
The commission would replace Bapopi, which was supposed to act as a state commission but had its role hijacked by the KTI.