Ulemas Council against lottery for sports fund

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Ulemas Council will oppose a planned lottery to raise funds for sports, its deputy chairman Ali Yafie said over the weekend.

"It seems to me that the scheme, whatever it is called, is a new guise for gambling, which is banned," Ali said after attending a discussion at the Istiqlal Mosque.

Gambling is considered illegal according to Islamic teaching. The practice is also outlawed in this predominantly Moslem country.

Ali said the ulemas council would not call any internal meeting to discuss the fund raising, which is part of the Sports Awareness Campaign.

"We received a letter from the National Sports Council asking us to deliberate the new lottery proposal. But as far as I know, the ulemas council has decided not to accept the request," Ali said as quoted by Antara.

Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Consumers Protection Agency, Agus Pambagio, said on Friday that an edict issued by the ulemas council could determine whether the new lottery scheme was gambling or not. Agus himself said he was against the plan backed the sports council.

The lottery promoter, Dali Taher, said last week the council of ulemas had not shown any objection to the proposal.

But Ali denied this claim, saying that the council instead considered that the scheme would encouraging gambling.

"Fund raising of this sort would be hazardous for the public, particularly during the economic crisis. It would easily tempt people into gambling," he said.

Dali, the sports council's deputy chairman Arie Sudewo and the inspector general in the Ministry of Social Services Adang Ruchiatna presented the proposal to the ulemas council in April.

The ulemas council secretary Ichwan Syam and executives, including Ibrahim Husein, Nazri Adlani and Din Syamsuddin, questioned if the time was right to introduce such a fund raising scheme.

The sports council estimates it could earn Rp 100 billion (US$7 million) from the scheme each year. It wants the money to finance a long-term project aimed at placing the country sixth in the 2006 Asian Games.

Dali hoped the Ministry of Social Services would issue an initial permit for five years. But the ministry's secretary- general Syafei Anjasmaya said a special team would first have to be set up to study the proposal.

Separately, former state minister of youth affairs and sports Hayono Isman said that raising funds from cigarette taxes would be better than a lottery.

He said the lottery would only incite people to gamble.

He urged the sports council, the youth affairs and sports minister and all relevant government departments to consider all the impacts of the lottery.

"They must think about how to discourage gambling," he warned.

Hayono proposed that funds be raised for sports through cigarette taxes during his period as minister between 1993 and 1998, but his idea was rejected. (yan)