Sports museum: Coming in a dusty last at TMII

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.