Successful Games

Successful Games

With two days of competition still to go, one can safely
conclude that the 19th Southeast Asian Games have been successful
in almost every aspect. The huge cost that Indonesia has incurred
to stage the Games, including for the lavish opening ceremony
last Saturday and the renovation of various sport venues, has
been well worth every penny. This knowledge should make it easier
for the city administration, and the private consortium appointed
to prepare the facilities, to recover the huge outlays from
renewed sales of stickers to the public after the Games close
tomorrow.

Organizing a sporting fiesta of this scale on such short
notice has not been easy. There were some hitches at the last
minute and on the first day of the SEA Games, but they were minor
and were smoothed out as the competitions went into full gear.
The massive security deployment, although at times somewhat
excessive, ensured that troubles were kept to a minimum.

There was also a high turn out in audience attendance at most
of the competitions, thanks to the city administration's decision
to give schools a holiday for the duration of the Games. The
deployment of high school students to watch the Games was
essential to turn these competitions into lively events, and to
make winning for the athletes, whatever the country they
represented, glorifying.

This year's SEA Games have had their share of achievements.
One world record and several junior world records, all in weight
lifting, were improved upon. Several SEA Games records were also
broken.

These achievements however are minuscule by Olympic standards,
or even by Asian Games standards. The SEA Games illustrate that
the region has a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the
world when it comes to sports. This is no cause for despair. At
least, we know where we stand in preparing for next year's Asian
Games in Bangkok and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. The next step
is for the nation to show the political will and to expend the
necessary resources to get there.

The Games have been quite successful in terms of the two main
themes laid out by President Soeharto at the opening ceremony:
friendship and sportsmanship. The Games have had their share of
complaints of bad or unfair umpiring and judging, and about
allegations of judges and referees being bought off. But the
complaints came from all participants, including host Indonesia.

In sports involving juries from participating countries, it
was inevitable that their judgments at times became questionable.
There were also complaints from sore losers, but most accepted
the decisions in the name of friendship and sportsmanship. At
least the complaints were not as loud as in Chiang Mai two years
ago. The 18th SEA Games in the Thai city were filled with
allegations of the most blatant cheating.

For host Indonesia, the Games have restored its pride and its
title as the supreme sporting nation of the region which it lost
to Thailand two years ago in Chiang Mai. The haul of golds
Indonesia has collected in the Games has far exceeded
expectations, and some of the victories have even come from the
least expected and prestigious sports, such as in track and
field, swimming, shooting and cycling.

Indonesia can now rightfully claim to be the number one
sporting nation in the region, which is commensurate with being
the largest country in Southeast Asia. The routing of our team in
Chiang Mai in 1995 has taught us that we cannot take this title
for granted. We have to fight for it. The hard work that our
athletes have put into these past two years to wrest back the
Games' overall championship title has paid off.

The SEA Games have also momentarily taken the nation's
preoccupation away from the problems that it has had to deal with
for the past few months -- from the drought, forest fires, haze,
a major earthquake, and a host of man-made crisis, such as the
airplane crash and the currency debacle. Most of all perhaps, the
Indonesian victory has injected a dose of optimism that this
nation badly needs during this particularly tumultuous period.