What's gone wrong?
What's gone wrong?
Tomorrow 4,000 of the best sportsmen and women of this region will march into the Chiang Mai stadium for the opening ceremony of the 18th Southeast Asian Games. Participants in this grand sports festival will include Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, host Thailand and defending overall champion Indonesia.
Ten years ago in Bangkok we saw how vigorously the host athletes fought it out to win in almost every competition and how we lost, event by event, in each sport we had previously dominated. The obvious question is: Will we again have to swallow this bitter pill in Chiang Mai?
That is a question our athletes must answer after the games commence on Thursday.
The Thai authorities have been preparing their athletes well. Many of the best have been sent abroad for training. So they may excel in the events in which they compete and will do their best to emerge as the overall winner.
In previous games there have been flaws and errors, in particular in officiating and refereeing. It is, after all, usual -- though perhaps not quite in the spirit of the Olympic movement -- that every host country tries to take the fullest advantage of being on home ground and having the crowd's support.
However, Thailand has vowed to make the 18th Southeast Asian Games the best gathering in the 38-year history of this regional sports extravaganza.
"In the spirit of brotherhood among the SEA Games Federation members, Thailand as the host will make the Games the best and the most successful event," declared Santiparb Tejavanija, the vice chairman of the technical committee of this year's games, denying claims that, as the host, Thailand would do everything to come out as the overall champion.
"We guarantee that the Games will be staged fairly and squarely and to let the best athletes win," said Santiparb, who is also the secretary-general of Thailand's National Olympic Committee.
Still, host Thailand is more likely than Indonesia to grab the overall title at the Games this time, as Chairat Kamnuan, the deputy chairman of Thailand Olympic Committee, has predicted.
Thailand's estimation, in fact, does not differ much from one made by noted Indonesian sports observer Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, a former secretary-general of the Indonesian National Sports Committee. Except for badminton and a few other sports in which Indonesia excels on the international stage, this country's sports performance has suffered a decline in the past few decades.
Why? According to the national committee's deputy chairman, Arie Sudewo, the answer is that sports are no longer popular among Indonesian youths. By way of illustration, when President Soeharto opened the 11th Asian Track and Field Championships on Sept. 20 in Jakarta, the Senayan Madya stadium was packed with schoolchildren. But as soon as the President had left, the stadium was became almost empty, even though the competition was far from over.
The schoolchildren were not interested in watching the track and field competition. They were there, Arie said, because they were required to be there.
"So, can you expect them to take sports seriously, let alone be good at it?" asked Arie.
Why are sports no longer popular among Indonesia's youth? Even after the significant efforts that have been made to provide incentives for the attainment of sporting excellence?
It could be that a more comprehensive approach must be taken to the problem, involving greater participation by experts and authorities from other fields. The fact that, at present, so few sports facilities can be found in our big cities -- these are lacking, indeed, in too many of our schools -- is an indication that sports are no longer popular among the population as a whole.
Surely, this, too, is a factor to be considered.