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.