KONI looks for Bob replacement
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The National Sports Council (KONI) is looking to nominate another Indonesian to replace Mohamad "Bob" Hasan on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after he was expelled on Tuesday because of his past connection with corruption charges.
KONI secretary-general Djohar Arifin said on Wednesday chairman Agum Gumelar and he would take the opportunity of the IOC annual meeting in Athens to discuss the possible nominees.
The meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday.
However, Djohar said it would be difficult to successfully put an Indonesian onto the committee as there were only limited places for Asian candidates.
"There are only six or seven seats allotted for the Asian countries in the committee," Djohar said.
He said countries from the Southeast Asian region usually won two or three seats on the committee at most.
Two current IOC members from Southeast Asian countries are Nat Indrapana of Thailand and Ser Miang Ng of Singapore. Bob, who was included in the committee in 1994, had his membership suspended in May 2001 before he was finally deposed.
Bob was the second Indonesian to became an IOC member after Dadang Suprajogi, who took his representation in the international organization in 1989.
Bob was notoriously known for his business links with former Indonesian strongman Soeharto. He was named minister of trade and industry in Soeharto's last term of office and was later sentenced to a six-year prison term in 2000 for his role in a multimillion-dollar scam involving a forest mapping project in the early 1990s.
He was ejected by a vote of the full IOC general assembly. With expulsion requiring a two-thirds majority of 69 votes, the result was 101 in favor and three against, with six abstentions and three unmarked ballots, the IOC said.
"We'll have to discuss the nomination with counterparts from neighboring countries as to whether they will support our candidate," Djohar said.
If agreed on Indonesia's nominee would be submitted to an IOC meeting next year when the current committee membership will expire.
While being eager to push an Indonesian into IOC membership, Djohar said KONI had yet to find a perfect candidate for the post.
"We still don't know yet who we're going to nominate to be an IOC member. We have a one-year window to think about the nomination," he said.
Besides Bob, Bulgarian member Ivan Slavkov was suspended by the IOC executive board for alleged misconduct involving the 2012 bid city process, according to Associated Press.
Slavkov was secretly filmed by an undercover BBC television crew discussing how votes of IOC members could be bought.