House to finalize sports bill deliberations by year end
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A prominent House of Representatives' member has promised to push ahead with the sports bill, saying that they would be looking for its enactment by the end of this year.
The House has drawn an unprecedented sports bill -- the copies of which were made available to the participants -- that contains 14 chapters and 43 articles. Discussions are currently underway with the national sports community with a view to improving the bill.
"We will be urging the House Steering Committee (Bamus) next August to list the bill for deliberation during a plenary session," House member Sambas Suryadi told a one-day workshop here on Monday.
Sambas is a member of Commission VI for education and sport.
The plenary session will be held between November and December when the bill will be approved as it stands, or be amended.
"We must move on. It's essential that the bill is finalized soon," Sambas, from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) faction, said.
He was accompanied by N. Rajawane from the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction and Ferdiansyah from Golkar faction.
Monday's workshop was organized by the Ministry of National Education, which has taken over responsibility for national sports development following the abolition of the Office of the State Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs by former president Abdurrahman Wahid.
The workshop, which was attended by sports journalists from SIWO Jaya and top officials of the National Sports Council (KONI), was one of a series of discussions planned by legislators as part of an effort to elicit feedback from the sporting community and other quarters.
"This is the first occasion for us to seek the opinions of those deeply involved with sports. We will follow this up by talking to the business community, public figures and other parties," Sambas said after the discussion.
Arie Sudewo, the vice-chairman of KONI, said that he was hopeful that a sports law would be enacted by the end of this year to ensure certainty in sports development.
"We still have to cope with uncertainties today. Unfair treatment as regards the issues of rewards and sanctions for athletes, their rights and obligations are a few to mention," Arie said.
He said that businesspeople would also have to be guaranteed rewards for what they did to promote sport.
"In the past, businessmen were obliged to pay tax on the financial support they gave to KONI. To their dismay they found that they ended up paying out twice," he added.