Playing the good host

Every time an Israeli delegation is due here for a visit, the government has to be extra careful about the political repercussions that may arise. Many people here, for political reasons, are still opposed to Israel's participation in whatever event.

Almost all Indonesians who share this attitude link their anti-Israel sentiment with the Preamble of the Constitution, which states that freedom is the right of all nations. And Israel has for the last 50 years deprived the Palestinians of this right. Therefore, they say, allowing an Israeli sport delegation to play here means to recognize its brutal oppression of the Palestinian struggle.

The trouble is that this year Indonesia will host the 38th World Outdoor Archery Championships, lasting from Aug. 1 through Aug. 6. Israel and Portugal, two countries with whom Jakarta happens to have no diplomatic relations, are scheduled to participate. And the event will be opened by no less a person that President Soeharto himself.

The question is: Must Indonesia deny the two countries entry to the tournament, which would mean that it will turn the sports meet into a political event in an ostentatious manner? If it were to do so, what should be the reason for such an action?

While Israel has never maintained diplomatic relations with Indonesia, Portugal severed relations after East Timor, the colony which it left, was integrated into Indonesia in 1976.

Anti-Israel sentiment still runs high among many Indonesians. In 1991, a tennis match during an international youth tournament in Bombay, India, raised a blast of protests when Indonesian players competed against Israel. The incident forced the Indonesian Tennis Association to make a public apology.

Thus, although Indonesia will not compete face-to-face against either Israel or Portugal in next week's world archery championships, the question of the participation of Israel and Portugal deserves to be discussed in earnest.

First, as the hosts of the event, Indonesians would do well to calmly consider the fact that the championship is just a sporting event, and not a political game. The host country is bound by international protocol, and allowing Israel to play here does not mean that this country has changed its stand.

After President Soeharto met with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at his residence in October 1993 -- the Indonesian president was acting as chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement -- he has remained a tough supporter of the Palestinian cause.

In 1962, President Sukarno barred Taiwan and Israel from taking part in the Asian Games in Jakarta, but political conditions at that time were entirely different. Israel and the Arab countries were involved in a war of attrition, while now even the Palestinians meet with the Israelis at the negotiating table.

Sports, in many cases, cannot be separated from politics and can even help express political concerns -- such as the West's boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980 in protest of the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union -- but to make every sporting event a political game does not represent wise statesmanship in this shrinking world.

For certain Indonesia will be appreciated by the international community for its broad-mindedness by allowing the two countries to compete in the upcoming world archery championship.

Former state minister of environment Emil Salim was only being sensible when he aired his support for Indonesia's tolerance and discipline towards international sport protocol in relation to next week's championship.