Wismoyo awed by Americans

JAKARTA (JP): National Sports Council (KONI) chairman Wismoyo Arismunandar returned here on Tuesday from the United States, where he was granted on Friday an honorary doctorate from the U.S. Sport Academy, in Alabama, for his leadership and good management of national sports.

Wismoyo said he was amazed that American people respected people from different nations.

"I feel that Americans still have respect for Indonesians. For them, dignity is above all things. Everybody there showed appreciation of others.

"When I talked to them, they listened carefully. When I delivered my speech during the conferring ceremony, they attentively listened to my speech," he said at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport.

The academy's rector, Thomas Rossandich, conferred the title to Wismoyo along with three others, president of the International Olympic Committee Juan Antonio Samaranch, former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev and former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. (ivy)