SEAG must amuse people: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): State Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman said that the 19th Southeast Asian Games to be staged here in October next year should be an entertaining event.

"The Games should also serve as an occasion to develop sportsmanship, instead of a place for violence, as happened after recent soccer matches," Hayono told a seminar in Semarang, Central Java, Monday.

Hayono insisted that Indonesian athletes must live up to the expectations of the country's 195 million people by regaining the overall title that Thailand won in 1995. (yan)