Settling for second best
The 23rd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the biennial arena for the region's strongest and fittest to show their stuff, will officially open with due pomp and circumstance in Manila on Sunday.
On the much grander scale of international sports, the Games do not make much of an impression. New Asian marks, let alone world records, will be in short supply over the next 10 days.
The real battle is about who will earn bragging rights as the region's sporting powerhouse by finishing atop the medal standings.
For a golden period in the 1980s and 1990s, that title went to this nation's athletes, who swept nine of the 11 overall medal crowns from 1977-97. Swimmer Elfira Nasution, tennis player Yayuk Basuki and sprinter Mardi Lestari became household names for their SEA Games feats.
That was then, in a very different time and place for our athletes.
At the 1999 Games in Brunei, once-dominant Indonesia suffered the ignominy of finishing out of the top two for the first time since 1975, brought down by unsatisfactory results in swimming and athletics -- the two most prestigious sports that also offer the lion's share of medals.
It's been more of the same ever since. This year, barring a miracle, the Indonesian contingent is looking at a realistic target of finishing second behind Thailand, the perennial runner- up in the 1980s.
After each Games or another sporting disappointment, we hear the same excuses -- budget constraints, a lack of government commitment, poor talent-scouting programs, the public disinterest in a sports career with no guarantee of future welfare -- to explain it away.
There is some truth to all of the above, but it has become too pat and convenient to resort to them time and again. The slump did not happen overnight; it took years of complacency and inertia to let the success slide away from the country with the largest population in the region.
Events of this year can be the springboard for change. The passing of the sports law, more than 20 years after it was first mooted and after it languished in the House of Representatives for eight years, is a start on the road back to sporting glory.
The law, currently in an ongoing familiarization program to major cities, tackles such issues as the professional administration and organization of sports events, as well as outlining a long-awaited benefits system for athletes.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono often refers to his love of sports, but it will take more than spirited declarations and photo ops of volleyball games to effect change through a long- term program.
Still, there have been other small, but positive steps following on from the elite Indonesia Awakens training program, begun in 2002.
The Indonesian Badminton Association also began exploring additional training of its coaching staff, including in English proficiency, with the goal to improve their skills.
A two-city pilot project for soccer's Vision Asia -- part of FIFA's requirements to hold the 2007 Asian Cup -- will begin next year in Bandung and Yogyakarta. The aim is to improve the professional running of the sport, including attracting much- needed sponsorship.
That brings us to the issue of funding: The government's lament of having more pressing budgetary concerns may be justified. Yet even with the restoration of US$5.6 million on Thursday for a total 2006 sports budget of $15.6 million, it is a paltry amount compared with the allocations of Thailand ($240 million) and Vietnam ($60 million).
In the notoriously bureaucratic sports organizations of this country, it will take putting exceptional people with a shared vision to push programs forward. If they cannot be found among the current crop of sports officials, then the powers-that-be must be willing to make the hard decision to look outside for skilled, competent professionals willing to give their all.
Although this year's Games may be a lost cause, it's now the time to change our losing game plan. If not, Indonesia risks ending up as an also-ran instead of simply second best.