KONI members see PON as necessary for friendship

KONI members see PON as necessary for friendship

JAKARTA (JP): Participants of the National Sports Council
(KONI) plenary meeting consider the National Games (PON)
necessary bind athletes in the name of friendship and develop
young athletes before joining the national team.

MG Lailossa, KONI Maluku chapter executive director, told
reporters during a break in the meeting Tuesday that even in
difficult times, PON still had to go on.

"PON is still necessary because we, in the sports community,
can use the quadrennial event to reunite, especially in this
difficult situation of disintegration," he said.

Lailossa supported the idea to stage PON outside Java island.

"It's good, not only for sports development and athletic
achievement, but also to enable each province to have sports
facilities with international standards," he said.

Lailossa said Maluku still aimed to compete in PON in Surabaya
in June despite the riots which hit the province in the one last
year.

"We have to transport our 90 athletes to Jakarta next month as
a way to prepare them better. Some of them, who are still
studying, will go to the Ragunan sports school," he said, adding
that the athletes village is being used to accommodate refugees.

IGK Adhipura, KONI Bali chapter executive director, shared the
same idea.

"We can't just eliminate PON from the national agenda. We need
PON to measure the success of our athletes development programs.
If we no longer have PON, how can we empower the young
generation? Will we just see them use drugs instead of doing
sports," he said.

While Jepta Hutabarat, KONI North Sumatra chapter executive
director, said that PON was necessary to integrate athletes from
26 provinces.

"PON grooms our love of the nation as we meet people from
other provinces. It's a way to communicate and mingle with
friends. Through sports events, we can learn how to be different
without any hard feelings," he said.

KONI Central Java chairman, Djoko Sudantoko, sees PON as
necessary to unite the people and also to increase athletes
performance in national scale.

"If KONI decides to eliminate PON from the national agenda,
our four-year preparation to stage the event in 2004 will be
useless," he said.

Basic goal

KONI members were responding to a controversial statement by a
member of the House of Representatives saying that PON was no
longer necessary as it was too expensive and it failed to reach
its basic goal of grooming young athletes.

"If PON is considered as expensive, the host can reduce the
budget to its optimum and give priority only to those sports it
can host with a chance to win medals," said Hutabarat.

"But it doesn't mean that we have to eliminate PON from the
agenda. We can be efficient in the budget to overcome the high
costs," he added.

Lailossa said: "PON organizers can reduce the ceremonial
budget and focus their attention on staging competitions. They
can prioritize which sports must be featured according to
available facilities."

Adhipura said he preferred PON be staged outside Java.

"We don't have any problems if PON is staged outside Java, as
long as the venues have international-standard facilities. I
think Riau, Jambi and North Sumatra are ready to host PON
anytime," he said.

However, Adhipura said Bali is ill-prepared to host PON.

"Bali administrations are still seeking funds to build a
sports complex on the island. We have been able to stage
international single events including billiards, karate and
kempo. But we are still unable to host a multi sports event."

State minister of youth affairs and sports, Mahadi Sinambela,
said in his speech that PON was not used only as an extravaganza.

"PON is used to unify the nation, but most of all to better
prepare our athletes. PON can be staged in a province as long as
it has support from the administration and provides the funds in
the provincial budget," he said.

Mahadi also recommended KONI stage PON outside Java.

"If PON is staged outside Java, we will have many sports
facilities scattered in 26 provinces. It is a help from sports
community to the government." (yan)