Soeharto sets deadline for SEAG village row decision

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto yesterday urged the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games Organizing Committee to settle the row over plans to build a new athletes village this week.

State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Hayono Isman told reporters after a meeting with the President at his office that the Games committee would meet with the Jakarta governor and the Gelora Senayan Foundation either Thursday or Friday to solve the dispute.

"We expect to receive principle permits for the project from both Governor Surjadi Soedirdja and Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono in his capacity as the head of Senayan foundation during the meeting," Hayono said.

"If they give the permits, we will keep alive our hopes to build the athletes village within the time left."

The Games underwriting consortium, led by Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, plans to build a village of 1,000 rooms on a four-hectare plot at Senayan formerly used as a shooting range. It has pledged to complete the project which might cost up to US$70 million in 10 months.

Hayono, chairman of the National Sports Council and the committee Wismoyo Arismunandar, and Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Azwar Anas, who is also head of the committee's board of patrons, reported to the President about the ongoing preparations for the biennial event.

The Games, the third hosted by Indonesia since 1979, will run during the school holidays from Oct. 11 to Oct. 19. A total of 440 gold medals will be at stake in 34 sports, a considerable hike from the last Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which saw 28 sports and 324 golds being contested.

Accommodation has given the committee a headache since all but six events during the upcoming SEA Games will be held at the Senayan sports complex. An estimated 6,900 athletes and officials from 10 countries are expected to pour into the capital city for the sporting festival.

The city administration refused to issue the building permit for the athletes village project at Senayan, saying that the Games committee had never submitted the project's masterplan.

All referees, coaches and officials will stay at the Atlet Century Park hotel near Senayan which regularly accommodates athletes competing at the complex.

Objections

The committee had also considered building an athletes village at Cileungsi near Bogor, West Java. But Wismoyo said that most of the visiting teams raised objections to staying far away from the sports venues.

"It will trouble the athletes a lot if they have to drive tens of kilometers across the city just for a break at their accommodation," Wismoyo said. "Accommodation must help athletes reach their best form."

The last solution to the accommodation problem would be to lease apartments and hotels in downtown Jakarta. Azwar quoted Soeharto as saying that such a solution must not affect tourism.

Soeharto also asked the committee to help Indonesia gain a double success by both winning the Games overall title and hosting the event successfully.

"Choosing the sports is among our stratagem to win back the overall title. We pick events in which we have great chances to excel," said Wismoyo.

Last year Indonesia suffered its second upset since 1985 at the hands of Thailand. Wismoyo said that in next year's Games Indonesia will expect another tough challenge from visiting Thailand which will be gearing up for the 1998 Asian Games at home.

The Games committee has picked Hanoman, a half-monkey knight in the Ramayana myth, as the Games' mascot. (amd)