Indonesia threatens to pull out of hosting Asian karate event
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's karate body warned on Wednesday it would decline to host the 7th Asian Karate Federation (AKF) Championship here in May if scheduled regional referee training and testing was relocated from Jakarta to Macao.
"Usually, referee training and exams are conducted along with the AKF championship, but now the AKF has arbitrarily changed it," head of foreign affairs for the Indonesian Karate-do Federation (Forki), G.A. Pesik, said at his office.
"The AKF can't just relocate it because it is a chance for many local referees to get training and testing at home."
Pesik said the AKF argued that the seven days allotted for the championship and testing would be too time consuming.
In Forki's original proposal, referee training and testing would be held from May 16-18 in Jakarta, immediately followed by the AKF championship from May 19-22.
Pesik said the events were always held at the same host city in the past.
"But the AKF has a new plan to hold referee training and exams next month in Macao."
Irked by the change in plans, he said Forki decided to send an official letter to the AKF stating that the two events must be held together, or Forki would withdraw from hosting the championship.
"We decided last night about our stance, and as you can see we have prepared the letter to the AKF," he said.
"We are among the top Asian countries in karate, thus the AKF cannot treat us like this."
He conceded that Indonesia would stand to lose out through not hosting the event, but emphasized that other countries should not "underestimate" it in making decisions.
In the 6th AKF championship in Taoyuan, Taiwan, which was originally scheduled for 2003 but held over due to the region- wide outbreak of SARS, Indonesia won three golds through Oemar Syarif, Jenny Zeannet and Telly Melinda.
Indonesia's karatekas have also performed consistently well at the Asian Games and are considered among the best in the region.