Indonesia must learn from China, Soeharto says

Indonesia must learn from China, Soeharto says

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto is asking the national sports
circle to learn from China on how the country of 1.2 billion
people cultivates its talents to reach world sports supremacy.

Soeharto said upon receiving Minister of Youth Affairs and
Sports Hayono Isman at the State Palace yesterday that China is
such an outstanding example of a successful sporting country that
Indonesia can adopt its training techniques.

China stretched its reign over the Asian Games recently with a
haul of 137 gold medals, 92 silvers and 60 bronzes, leaving the
rest of Asia in the dust. Indonesia's 139-strong team slipped to
11th place with a paltry collection of three golds, 12 silvers
and 11 bronzes, the worst outcome since 1962.

"Anyway, the national squad did not fail. Their performances
were simply not what we had expected," Soeharto said.

Hayono will lead a delegation which includes top officials of
the national sports governing body (KONI) and several sports
organizations to China for a five-day visit starting Nov. 1.

Apart from several trips to China's centers for sports
research and development, Hayono will sign a Memorandum of
Understanding with his counterpart for cooperation in sports
development between the two countries.

"We especially want to learn how Chinese wonder potions are
made to enhance the performances of their sportsmen and women,"
said Hayono.

Hayono quoted Soeharto as saying that in the near future
national sports prime movers should think about giving special
treatment to sports which have realistic prospects on the
international level, such as badminton and archery.

Soeharto also reminded that such measures are urgent as the
14th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games are coming soon. "Don't be
careless about host Thailand's preparations for the Games. We
don't want to be number two," Soeharto implored.

Thailand will play host to the regional sports event in Chiang
Mai next December in preparation for the 13th Asiad in 1998. The
national squad finished second overall for the first time ever in
the 1985 SEA Games in Bangkok behind the host team.

KOI

Hayono also reiterated yesterday the necessity of establishing
the Indonesian Olympics Committee (KOI) as a separate body from
KONI because the principal sports body has too many sports under
its auspices.

KONI presently handles not only official Olympic sports such
as track and field, swimming and tennis but also recreational
sports such as mountaineering, scuba diving, jogging, fun bikes
and even marching band.

KONI's chairman Surono, in response to Hayono's remarks, told
reporters on Monday that the establishment of KOI was not
necessary and that, while the government reserved the right to
step in KONI's affairs, it was not supposed to intervene in the
establishment of KOI.

Hayono said yesterday that Surono was right but underlined
that KOI's function should, at any rate, be revived.

KOI is inherent in KONI since the latter's establishment in
1966, Hayono said, "but I think its existence should be made more
clearly felt by placing it beneath KONI structurally. As a
consequence, there should, of course, be someone to chair KOI."

"KOI will also provide exact, correct information on sports
associations which it governs and thus, help improve its clogged
communications with those associations," Hayono added.

The lack of communication between KONI and the sports bodies
it governs earlier came under strong criticism by Mangombar
Ferdinand Siregar, KONI's former secretary general.

Siregar said KONI's high ranking officials very often did not
know what happened in the sports bodies and tended to believe
everything the associations reported to them without checking it
first themselves. (arf/amd)