'It's high time to pay more attention to athletes'

The House of Representatives endorsed a law on sports last week which requires the government to provide a pension for national athletes and organizations involved in developing the country's sports. The Jakarta Post interviewed residents here to get their views on the issue.

Yulistiawan, 23, is a reporter for the weekly tabloid Opini. He lives in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

As we all know, our athletes can barely survive. However, I'm relieved that the House has endorsed a bill that pays more attention to their financial needs.

It's about time that our government appreciated what our athletes have done for our nation.

Some have even won gold medals and brought fame to the country, yet in the past the government seemingly did not pay enough attention to their financial welfare.

As we know, people often do not view being an athlete as a serious profession, therefore an athlete cannot depend on his or her income to survive.

Hopefully this law will motivate them to do achieve more in their profession. However, we still have to wait until it is fully implemented. Let's just hope that it will not be like other laws that have not been fully implemented.

Andy Nugraha, 30, an engineer who used to play professional basketball in college. He lives in Pondok Gede, East Jakarta.

It is good that the government is now paying more attention to the welfare of athletes. In the past, most athletes, even those who have gone international, ended up having nothing at all when they retired.

Those who were still in the profession usually remained there because of a mere passion for the field. Honestly, we cannot rely on being an athlete, even a professional one, to make a decent living.

Less than 1 percent of athletes, and those are the best of the best, can survive. Nowadays, they earn more from making commercials than their main job.

If the government pays more attention to athletes' welfare, I hope we can prove that we can also excel in sports.

--The Jakarta Post