Sporting behavior?

Sporting behavior?

Indonesians have no lack of excitement. Every day something
happens, sometimes nice but most of the time unpleasant. We have
witnessed fires which have swept through villages and made
hundreds of people homeless, we have read about tragic air
accidents in which the crew and passengers perished, we have
heard about the overloaded ferry on Lake Toba sinking and
claiming a large number of lives, and most recently, on July 25
about 40 Indonesians lost their lives when a boat and a tanker
collided in the Strait of Malacca.

The weakening of the rupiah meant many people had sleepless
nights and the intended sale of the Salim group shares to
Singapore added to the financial confusion.

All these things were still fresh in our mind when we read
about the vandalism committed by fanatical football supporters.
These young hooligans threw stones at trains passing through
Central Java, and in Jakarta the East Java mob, called bonek,
robbed people, drinking and eating without paying which created
problems for many street vendors who lost a great deal of their
daily income.

Why were they doing this? Who suffered from this vandalism? It
was of course the poor, innocent people. But conglomerates and
big businesspeople were also affected by their misconduct.

Why didn't they think before creating havoc? Why did they
react in such a way at a football match? Sport should be enjoyed.
Losing or winning is a natural outcome of competition and should
not create disturbances. This is not the first time that
supporters expressed themselves in extreme ways, unacceptable by
any standards. Vandalism is not something new. We must educate
the young to be mature and avoid doing things which are
regrettable later.

Supporters are welcome because they encourage the players and
make them play to the best of their ability. But sport is sport.
The military and the police seemed to have made thorough
preparation to control the situation.

SOEGIH ARTO

Jakarta