Indonesian sports face grim outlook in 2002
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With economic and political condition expected to have yet to return normal in the near future and the absence of government's sporting goodwill, Indonesian sports is facing a grim prospect ahead, according to senior athletes.
KONI, the country's sports governing body, has traditionally turned to business circles for financial support, especially when it comes to preparing a delegation for a multisports showcases such as SEA Games, Asian Games and Olympics.
However, raising fund has become a hard task to do since monetary crisis hit Indonesian in 1997. And the same issue has again set in now that the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, is approaching.
The hardship in accruing funds for training workout and the dispatch of athletes to a competition, be it at home or abroad, proved to be an easily-founded excuse by an Indonesian sporting contingent (read: KONI) for its dismal performance, such as a case at the 2001 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.
The Kuala Lumpur Games left Indonesia, once a dominant force in the Southeast region, in a mediocre third place for the second time in a back-to-back season after 1999 in Brunei.
While it is still debatable whether KONI should be held responsible for the poor showing, straining financial problem is expected to continue overshadow national sports for years to come.
Such a condition lent its hands to the ongoing political and notably economic look of the Indonesia, which is still far from recovery.
"Now businessmen have walked away. What I want to point out is that raising fund is difficult today and that hard effort is needed to find another source of money. It takes time," Utut Adianto, the country's number one chess Grand Master, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
To add to the woes, the government is virtually idle about the financial plague.
"It's deplorable that the government doesn't have its goodwill on sports," sports columnist Eddi Elison said in a separate interview.
Eddie recalled Garuda Emas (Golden Eagle) program which was mooted by KONI in early 1990. The program, which aims at spurring a specifically-designated province to develop its own potential sport, has not worked.
"This is because the government has not given its full support to the campaign. There should have been a nationwide movement to make the campaign a success," Eddi, who is an official of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI), said.
"Why it did so? Because sports is not a priority in this country. The financial aid the government has so far realized is only an instant package of rescue.
"What demanding is that the government allocate a sum of money apportioned from the state budget for the development of sports," he said.
The poor showing at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games could as well be looked to be the evil fruit Indonesia had to reap for its lack of effort in regeneration.
Eddi put it down to the absence of commitment in the part of the officials of the sport organizations.
"Only a few have dedication. The rest have joined their respective organizations only for the sake of their interest. This kind of guys is poisonous to sports development," he said.
Ade Rai, a country's leading bodybuilder, attributed it to unqualified human resources recruited into the organizations.
"How can an official in charge of scouting affairs, for an instance, be justifiably eligible for his job if he in fact doesn't know how to carry on with it," Ade said.
He said that the officials of the majority of the sports organizations would tend to blindly set eyes on tournaments at hands without giving attention on regeneration.
With such a condition expected not to improve in the near future the three are pessimistic about the prospect of the Indonesian sports in 2002.
Ade suggested that the attention had to be focused on the Doha 2006 Asian Games instead of the 2002 Asiad while Utut predicted Indonesia would probably be braced for an unprecedented fourth finisher at the Hanoi 2003 SEA Games.