'The most qualified for Pelti head is a woman'

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Martina Wijaya has received the endorsement of one of the leading tennis personalities in the country in her bid to be elected chairperson of the Indonesian Tennis Association (Pelti), which will be decided during its congress in Makassar, South Sulawesi, next week.

Martina, whose current role in Pelti is supervisor of development, is one of the main candidates to replace the incumbent chairperson Tanri Abeng.

The other is Permana Agung, who is a top official at the Finance Ministry. The congress will run from Dec. 15 to 17 where representatives from the provincial chapters will also attend.

However, it was Martina, who seems to be in the driver's seat now that Moerdiono, who was Pelti chairman during the 1986-1990 period, openly spoke in favor of her.

"In my opinion, Martina is the right person to take over at the helm of Pelti," Moerdiono said after he opened his press conference with an elaboration of the criteria of an ideal chairman.

Moerdiono, who also served as state secretary during the Soeharto administration, emphasized six items of eligibility criteria for the head of Pelti.

But he did not promptly point to Martina, who was also present at the press conference, as the person he meant until he was asked to divulge his preference.

He said that Martina, who led the Indonesian tennis squad to three medals -- a gold, a silver and a bronze at the 2002 Asian Games, had a lot of dedication in addition to her lengthy service with Pelti.

Moerdiono, who admitted he had not been following national tennis development intensely, said it would take a lot of hard work for the next chairman to push national tennis to international level.

Martina and Permana had already held their respective press conferences a few weeks ago in a bid for top post.