Sports museum: Coming in a dusty last at TMII

By Primastuti Handayani

JAKARTA (JP): Have you ever been to the capital's sports museum?

The most likely answer will be: "Never heard of it" or "Do we have one?" The fact is yes, we do.

Indonesia's lack of success on the international sporting stage is reflected both inside and outside the building.

Construction started on Oct. 4, 1987 and was financed by the Panji Olah Raga foundation. Nyoman Nuarta designed the building in the shape of a soccer ball.

Located in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in East Jakarta, the outside looks really dusty.

On the lobby's left wing are pictures of sports events which reflect sportsmanship, including the Olympic sporting motto of citius, altius, fortius (fastest, highest, strongest).

Statues of four divers hang from the third floor in the middle of the hall.

The lobby's right wing is the so-called "Hall of Fame", displaying pictures of famous athletes -- Indonesia's first-time Thomas Cup shuttler Ferry Sonneville; eight-time All England winner Rudi Hartono and Indonesia's first world professional boxer Elyas Pical; former chairmen of the National Sports Council, former state ministers of youth affairs and sports and former president Soeharto.

There is also a display of mountaineering equipment used by the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) team when it climbed Mount Everest in 1996.

On the second floor, there's athletic memorabilia from many sports and a 70-seat theater. However, only a few of the items are really historical.

Boxer Wim Gomies, who is training for the 13th Asian Games boxing competition, handed over his 1970 and 1978 Asian Games gold medals, contingent training suit and jacket his shoes.

His picture is displayed in the boxing section together with his memorabilia.

Markswoman Lely Sampoerna, her Southeast Asian (SEA) Games medals and other trophies and pictures are in the shooting frame.

Other sports frames contain little memorabilia whatsoever.

Badminton, for instance, only has a picture of Susi Susanti and Alan Budikusuma taken when the couple won their 1992 Olympic gold singles medals. There are also Susi's racket but there is no caption saying that the racket was used to win Indonesia's first ever Olympic gold.

Similarly the archery display does not include the country's first ever Olympic medal. The country's "trio Srikandi" (trio of heroines) Nurfitriyana, Lilies Handayani and Kusumawardhani won a silver medal in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Museum director Salimin said that the impediment to collecting memorabilia was that sports organizations rarely responded to his calls to hand over their best athletes' apparel or equipment.

He said the result was that practically the museum's only visitors were students on vacation.

"During the working days, we can say that almost nobody stops by at the museum," he said, adding that the entry ticket cost only Rp 1,000 (10 U.S. cent).

Salimin also said that each sports organization should make its own data bank on their athletes' personal bests. Apparently many of the organizations have to ask their athletes first before compiling the data.

"We have never done a comparison study with other country's sports museums so we don't really know how to design the interior to achieve the optimum results," he said.

The museum, inaugurated on April 20, 1989 by former president Soeharto, does not have its own budget for maintenance.

"We have to ask for the money from the office of the state minister of youth affairs and sports," Salimin said, adding that the routine budget for the 18 employees' salaries was only Rp 5 million.

National Sports Council chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar expressed his concern when he inspected the museum last month.

"I feel so ashamed about people's comments on the museum. At first I thought they would give compliments but, on the contrary, they criticized the museum appearance.

"Museums are a valuable thing for a nation. If we don't maintain this museum, the next generation may not know who Rudy Hartono is," he said sadly.

Wismoyo urged sports organizations to display their best athletes' memorabilia in the museum.

"If necessary we'll make a contest of it," he said, adding that a lack of promotion meant most people were not even aware of the museum's existence.

Most people agree that the minister's office, the council and the museum management should work hard to give the museum a facelift before promoting it to attract visitors.

Their hardest job will be making the museum look interesting for visitors. And it won't be easy although they could learn from other museums in the Taman Mini complex.