Subagyo favorite for shooting body chief

JAKARTA (JP): The executive director of the Indonesian Shooting and Hunting Association (Perbakin), Sutiyoso, said Lt. Gen. Subagyo Hadi Siswoyo, the Army's deputy chief of staff, would be the right person to chair the association.

Speaking at the opening of the association's national congress at the Borobudur Intercontinental Hotel on Friday, Sutiyoso, who is also the governor of Jakarta, said Subagyo would be able to handle all the potential problems within the association, whose athletes won 11 gold medals in the 19th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games last month.

"Shooting has a good chance to win many medals in multi-sports events. It means the association needs a very capable person to chair it," he said at the congress, which will end today.

"The new chairman must be able to maintain the athletes' achievement in the SEA Games because we only won two golds in the 1995 Games," he added.

"I believe Subagyo has the capability to chair the association and I personally support him."

Sutiyoso also said that the new chairman should come from the military.

"It would be good for the organization if a military officer is in command because shooting has to deal with weapons," he said.

Subagyo has also been nominated as the new chairman of the Badminton Association of Indonesia, which will stage its national congress at Hotel Indonesia from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

Earlier this week, Sutiyoso said he would consider his nomination to chair the association in the 1998/2001 period. But he had indicated that he has been busy with his new job as the capital's governor.

Sutiyoso was a deputy of the association's target division from 1989 to 1993 and has been its executive director from 1993 to 1997.

The current chairman, Edi Sudrajat, who is also the minister of defense, had also denied to chair the association for a third time.

"I've chaired the association twice. I think it's better to have a new chairman who is more energetic and more innovative," he said.

But some participants from branches outside of Java still expected Edi to chair the association.

Grooming

Edi hoped the selected chairman would be able to continually groom athletes to reach world achievements.

Meanwhile, Irham Jafar, a representative of the association's Lampung branch, said that the new chairman must also pay attention to grooming athletes outside of Java.

He said by having the same development program, there would not be any gaps between athletes inside and outside of Java.

"The main problem is how to purchase the weapons because they are very expensive. It's impossible for athletes to have the same weapons as owned by athletes from Jakarta, West Java, Central Java and East Java."

Twenty-two of the association's 27 provincial branches are being represented at the congress, which was opened by National Sports Council Chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar. (yan)