Rugby

Rugby

It is with some reluctance that I am taking issue with Mr. RB Sawrey-Cookson's letter (Give us rugby football, May 5, 1995), suggesting that for four whole weeks, and perhaps more, The Jakarta Post's sports pages be filled with games like rugby and cricket, none of which are popular among Indonesian readers. The reason for the reluctance is that Mr. Sawrey-Cookson (if I remember correctly) fought in World War II, and I deeply respect veterans of that heroic struggle against Naziism and Japan's militarists.

According to the latest survey, The Jakarta Post's readership consists of 63.4 percent English-speaking Indonesians and 36.6 percent expatriates (9.2 percent Americans, 11.3 percent Europeans, 10.9 percent Asians, and 5.2 percent from other nationalities). Let us say that half of the expats hail from Commonwealth countries and countries like France, with a rugby tradition. That still leaves only about 18.8 percent of the total readers (at the most) who are likely to follow those sports mentioned above. What about the rest of us?

The most popular sports among Indonesian readers are (in approximate descending order) soccer, badminton, tennis, basketball, volleyball, boxing, table tennis, chess, and archery. This is just a conjecture, based on reporting in the Indonesian press.

The Jakarta Post is an Indonesian newspaper with an international outlook. It is meant to be read by all foreign nationals including Britons, Arabs, Chileans, Japanese, Russians, Chinese, Filipinos and other foreigners residing here.

I do understand and sympathize with Mr. Sawrey-Cookson's problem and the predicament of cricket and rugby lovers like him. British newspapers in Indonesia cost up to 12 times the price of The Jakarta Post and four times that of U.S.-owned papers like International Herald Tribune and that sort. Australian newspapers are almost non-existent here. But there is always Singapore's Straits Times, where the British influence runs stronger.

Let us leave the choice of sports in The Jakarta Post's pages to its Indonesian editors. The sports pages seem to be good the way they are. Sorry to disagree with you, Mr. Sawrey-Cookson, but ice hockey is a tremendously exciting sport. I am sure many Americans, Canadians, Russians, Swedes and others would agree with this.

Finally, this next piece of information might be useful to you: the BBC can be heard in Indonesia on 11955 kHz in the mornings and 11750 khz in the evenings (both on the 25 meter band). At 4:45 p.m. there is a sports roundup. Radio Australia can be heard loud and clear in this country. From the sports news sources I suggested, you can have all the rugby and cricket you want!

FARID BASKORO

Jakarta