Indonesia's Greek tragedy
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.