National savings and gambling

National savings and gambling

From Suara Karya

As we all know, the government will soon launch a new package in an effort to raise funds to finance sports activities. The new package, called Tapornas (national savings for sports activities), will cooperate with banks which accept money from potential depositors. The depositors' money is safe with the banks and will earn interest.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia National Sports Committee and sports developers will obtain a certain fund for sports activities from the difference between the Tapornas' interest rate and normal bank interest rates. And the banks can at the same time channel the funds from the society to business loan applicants.

In this case many people express the concern that Tapornas will function in the same way as the now defunct SDSB government- sponsored lottery which has been regarded as gambling. An exchange of arguments on the pros and cons has taken place.

As a responsible citizen I would also like to make my contribution in this matter. The gambling aspect in Tapornas can be annihilated by:

* Every time the prize is drawn, only the name of the winner should be announced, not the number of the bank account.

* Should the number of the bank account be announced, the drawing frequencies should be reduced so as not to attract further gambling schemes.

DJUHERUDDIN CHOLIQE

Jakarta