Indonesia's Greek tragedy

People in East Timor have, perhaps, one more reason justify why they voted for independence in 1999. As it has come to pass, freedom from Indonesian rule also means having the privilege to watch a live telecast of the centennial Olympics in Athens. Had they voted to remain a part of the country, they would not enjoy this privilege.

Indonesia will be the only country in Athens that will not be showing coverage on the greatest sports spectacle of the world, according to the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU). This means 220 million people will be deprived of the privilege.

ABU broadcasting operations head John Barton calls the decision -- or nondecision -- on the part of all Indonesian TV stations "a sad day for international sports and for the many people in Indonesia".

If you think this tragic, look at the response -- or rather, lack thereof -- to this news that first broke out on Sunday: Zilch. Few media carried the story, and this explains why this bad news has not hit the general public.

This is, simply, a tragedy.

Granted, watching the Games is a not a right, but since we, as a nation, have been accorded the privilege to follow the Games from the comfort of our living rooms these past two decades or so, we have come to see this as a God-given right and expect that at least one of our local stations would do us the honor and fulfill it.

After all, everyone else in this world will be watching the 100th anniversary games of the greatest athletic meet in the world.

In this era of commercial television, one would have thought strong competition would arise among local stations for the broadcasting rights, especially those that broadcast nationwide. Instead, we have learned that not one of them came forward to snatch up the offer by the ABU, which has put together a 3,500- hour Olympic package for countries in the Asia Pacific.

The reason cited, at least by leading commercial network RCTI, is that it was not "commercially advantageous". There is probably also a sponsorship issue over the Olympic Games program, with most funding currently going to the more popular, easy and inexpensive reality and quiz shows.

We also believe there is a problem of scheduling, and commercial stations are simply reluctant to sacrifice their prime-time, money-spinning reality and quiz shows for the Olympic Games, which would be airing live in the evenings due to the time difference between Greece and Indonesia.

However, if profit is the sole driving force behind local stations, then this is another major tragedy for our broadcasting industry and for the nation. The Broadcasting Law stipulates the functions of television comprise entertainment, information and education -- the very definition of a social institution. The industry's failure to air the Olympic Games while continuing to dedicate so many wasted hours to empty reality and quiz shows tells us of where their priorities lie.

This leaves us with the sole state-run network, TVRI, as our only and last hope to jump in and take up the ABU offer. Someone has to do it, and since we have no way of instilling in commercial stations a sense of public duty to broadcast the Olympics, perhaps the government can instruct TVRI to do so and even enlist sponsors -- if not, sponsor nationwide coverage of the Indonesian delegation to Athens from the state budget, using some of the windfall from record-high world oil prices.

Given Indonesia's low standing in international and regional sports, our failure to broadcast the event, live or otherwise, would further undermine our national interest in sports, and in our capacity to understand the age-old Olympic traditions of honoring excellence, international friendship and solidarity.