Sports ministry hailed, urged to improve RI sports
Sports ministry hailed, urged to improve RI sports
Eva C. Komandjaja
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Several national sports figures have applauded the
reinstatement of the sports ministry, but cautioned that it was
not guarantee that more attention would be paid to sports
affairs.
President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono picked Adhyaksa Dault as
State Minister of Youth and Sports in his new Cabinet for 2004-
2009 term announced on Thursday.
The fact that sports is merged with youth affairs as it had
previously been before the ministry was disbanded in 2000, raised
concern about possible partial treatment.
"We hope that the government will give a greater portion of
attention to sports this time because the government used to
focus more on youth affairs than sports," Djohar Arifin Hussein,
the secretary-general of the National Sports Council (KONI) said.
Djohar did say, however that he was pleased with the decision
to reinstate the ministry and hoped the government would focus on
sports development.
"Sports needs more attention given it's part in building the
nation's character," Djohar said.
The ministry is one of a number of Cabinet portfolios that the
then-President Abdurrahman Wahid dropped in 2000.
Sports expert Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar said that the sports
ministry was needed so there would be more government support in
the area of sports development.
"Without support from the government, Indonesia will not be
able to compete with other countries. We were lucky that we got
one gold medal in the Olympic Games last August without any
government support," Siregar said.
Indonesia sent nearly 40 athletes to the Athens Olympic and
shuttler Taufik Hidayat was the only gold medalist.
Thailand, which has surpassed Indonesia and now is the
dominant country in the Southeast Asian region, took home three
golds. Malaysia and Vietnam have also improved greatly compared
to Indonesia, which has been put down to Indonesia's weakening
development due to lack of governmental support.
"Look at our neighboring countries, they all have a ministry
of sports and their sports development programs are excellent.
Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam all have such ministries, while
we went backward instead by eliminating our sports ministry,"
Siregar added.
"It is good that our new government will set up the sports
ministry, although it is merged with youth affairs. I'd love it
if sports had its own ministry as youth affairs is often
connected to politics," he said.
Indonesia's top tae kwon do athlete Juana Wangsa Putri said
that sports achievement would largely depend upon how committed
the government was to serious sports development programs.
"I hope that the existence of a sports ministry will help KONI
elevate sports performance in this country, to point that we are
able to compete internationally," he said.
Djohar said that the sports ministry would start earmarking
more funding for the development program and building more sports
facilities in outer provinces and schools.
Former world badminton champion Icuk Sugiarto said he had high
expectations for the new ministry.
"We hope that we can get more support from the government to
curb the large amount of bureaucratic red tape we have to work
through just to hold a tournament," said Icuk, who is currently
the badminton chief in charge of development affairs.