Soeharto's Olympic vision

Soeharto's Olympic vision

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto wants Indonesia to host both
the 2006 Asian Games and 2008 Olympics.

"The President asked me to assess the possibility of Indonesia
hosting the two international major sport events," Minister of
Sports and Youth Affairs Hayono Isman said after meeting the
President yesterday.

Hayono said Soeharto was confident both the Asian Games and
the Olympics could be held here as the economy was expanding and
absolute poverty had almost been eradicated.

"It is not yet final that Indonesia will bid for the two
events because the feasibility of it still needs to be
investigated," Hayono said.

When asked whether Indonesia could host the two events
considering the decline of Indonesia's standing in many sports,
the minister said this trend could be reversed if the private
sector played a bigger role in developing sports across the
country.

"The private sector is definitely required to help sporting
development in the country, and to host the SEA Games, Asian
Games and Olympics. The government will invite the private sector
to cooperate more in developing sports in Indonesia.

"The coming SEA Games will become the benchmark for how the
private sector can help develop sports," Hayono said.

During the meeting, the minister also reported on the plans to
host the Youth National Coordination meeting from Feb. 25 to Feb.
27, and the National Sports Convention from Feb. 27 to Feb. 28.
Hayono said he was hoping Soeharto would attend the two meetings.

The purpose of the two meetings, Hayono said, was to review
the development programs for youth activities and sports
undertaken in the past three years as well as to gather input for
the 1998 State Policy Guidelines.

Problems

Hayono explained to the President that the sports convention
was urgently needed in order to overcome problems in the youth
and sports sectors.

"Based on facts and the data we have compiled, the physical
condition of students, workers and the young is low. The
development of sports is also not coordinated well and is often
duplicated.

"These facts include the declining number of medals and
national athletes' poor performances in the 1994 Asian Games, the
1995 SEA Games and the 1996 Olympics. The people are disappointed
by the poor results," Hayono said.

At the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Indonesia only managed to
finish in second place and at the 1994 Asian Games, Indonesia
dropped from seventh to 11th position. At last year's Olympics,
Indonesia took only one gold medal, courtesy of badminton doubles
stars Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagdja. At the Barcelona Olympics
Indonesia won two golds, one silver and two bronzes, all in
badminton.

According to Hayono, many fundamental problems and constraints
exist. He said that although schools and universities included
sport in their curriculums, it was not in line with the guidance
set by the government.

"How can we improve the nation's sporting achievements if the
curriculum in schools and universities does not comply with the
pattern and guidance set by the government?" the minister asked.

But Hayono said the biggest obstacle to improved sporting
performances was the lack of motivators, such as qualified
coaches and organizers.

"We need to increase the number of our sports facilities if we
want to develop sports. We should concentrate on this first," he
stressed. (lnt)