Pencak Silat: A step away from becoming an official sport

Pencak Silat: A step away from becoming an official sport

Imanuddin, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta,
iman@thejakartapost.com

An exhibition sport will not mean more gold, silver or bronze
medals to pursue in the 14th Asian Games in Busan, South Korea,
but nevertheless Pencak Silat will make an ambitious move toward
international recognition.

There will be a fantastic opportunity to show the public,
especially the Asian community, that there is a different
technique of self defense, known locally and in the Southeast
Asia region as Pencak Silat, which deserves international, or at
least regional, recognition.

Many, mainly in the Pencak Silat community, have praised its
success in managing to get accepted to Asia's biggest sporting
event, following Karate and Judo from Japan, Tae Kwon Do from
Korea and Wushu from China.

"Although, it (Pencak Silat) will only be an exhibition sport
in the Busan Asian Games, it's a great stride toward receiving
more international recognition," said Indonesian Pencak Silat
Federation (IPSI) President and President of the International
Pencak Silat Federation (Persilat) Eddie Nalapraya of Indonesia,
on the sidelines of a recent function celebrating the inclusion
of Pencak Silat in the 2002 Asian Games.

Similar feelings were shared by Abdullah Syafei, President of
Singapore Pencak Silat Federation, who expressed his joy at the
inclusion of Pencak Silat in the Asiad.

Meanwhile, President of Malaysia's Pencak Silat Federation Tan
Sri H. Mohammad Thaib said: "It's a golden milestone for Pencak
Silat in its attempt to receive official international
recognition."

Pencak Silat combines the skill of various traditional ethnic
of self defense techniques inherited by the people within the
Southeast Asia from their ancestors centuries ago.

Nowadays, Pencak Silat has been globally promoted and
developed in the five continents under the flag of Persilat
(International Pencak Silat Federation, Persekutuan Pencak Silat
Antar Bangsa). The umbrella organization was co-founded by
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam in 1980.
Since then, the organization has spread to 40 countries.

The long and winding road toward reaching international
recognition began in 1987, when Pencak Silat was included as an
official event in the 14th Southeast Asia (SEA) Games in Jakarta,
involving nine participating countries.

Meanwhile, in the global arena, a Pencak Silat World
Championship is held every two years.

At home, Pencak Silat managed to enter the country's local
official multi-sport event, the National Games (PON), in 1973,
long after Indonesia had its Pencak Silat Federation (IPSI)
established in Solo (Surakarta, Central Java) in 1948.

And the long wait to enter a larger international stage has
borne fruit as Pencak silat was finally allowed as an exhibition
sport at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, (the city formerly known
as Pusan) South Korea before a probable official inclusion of it
in Qatar, the site of the 2006 Asian Games.

The Busan Asian Games Organizing Committee has allowed Pencak
Silat athletes to participate but will treat them differently
from the official contingents, in that the pencak silat
contingent will have to arrange its contest at its own cost
during the competition.

The Busan games will run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 14 and pencak
silat will take place for two days on Oct. 5 and 6. Athletes from
15 countries, including host South Korea, are expected to compete
in the exhibition.

It would not be too much of a distant dream to have Pencak
Silat eventually make it all the way to the Olympic Games, as its
competition and scoring systems share similarities with martial
arts from other countries, such as Karate, Judo, Tae Kwon Do and
Wushu.

For competition purposes, Pencak Silat is divided into four
categories -- match, solo, doubles and team.

The match category involves a competition that involves two
athletes from different teams using the elements of Pencak
Silat's self defense and attack techniques with the goal of
achieving a higher score.

Solo is when an athlete performs the Pencak Silat Single
Compulsory Steps with accuracy and precision, both empty-handed
and with weapons.

The double involves two pesilat of the same team who perform
their skills and Pencak Silat's defense and attack techniques.

The team category involve three pesilats of the same team who
perform their skills empty-handed in the Team Compulsory Steps
accurately.

The four categories are divided into male and female events.

Apart from the successful continuing lobbying endeavors of
Persilat officials to include Pencak Silat in international
multi-event sports tournaments, the questions will be on how
people of the countries of origin of Pencak Silat, especially
Indonesia, could maintain their supremacy in every tournament in
the future.

Or will they be willing to see themselves as spectators only,
while other countries excel and dominate every Pencak Silat
tournament?

A good, but threatening example should be the 2000 Pencak
Silat World Championship in Jakarta when Indonesia managed to top
the overall medal tally with 14 golds but relative newcomer
Vietnam came second with five golds. However, the latest world
championship had shown us that four of the Vietnamese gold
medalists were women, in contrast to Indonesia's mens'
achievement.

Vietnam's increasing threat had begun in the 20th SEA Games in
Brunei Darussalam when its team outclassed Indonesia with seven
golds, while Indonesia came second with five golds.

An honest, but bitter statement from Eddie Nalapraya is that
"Pencak Silat is no longer Indonesia's property". This should be
a real lesson to those involved here.