Wismoyo urges people not to exaggerate sticker issue

Wismoyo urges people not to exaggerate sticker issue

JAKARTA (JP): The National Sports Council's chairman, Wismoyo
Arismunandar, has urged people not to exaggerate the controversy
over the sale of stickers promoting the 19th Southeast Asian
(SEA) Games.

Wismoyo, who is also chairman of the Games organizing
committee, said Wednesday that there was no need to over expose
the problem.

"We should not let such a small problem like sticker selling
ruin the pattern and system we have set up to raise funds from
the public to host the Games," he said.

The council is cooperating with a consortium, which is chaired
by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, to raise funds
from the public by selling stickers to customers of state-owned
companies PT Telkom, PLN and PAM.

Hotels, restaurants, recreational parks and airports across
the country have been charging customers for stickers, sparking
protests that customers were not given a chance to refuse buying
the stickers.

Sixteen million of the 17.75 million stickers are sold for Rp
1,000 (41.7 U.S. cents) each, while the rest are sold for between
Rp 2,500 and Rp 50,000 each.

The consortium hopes to raise Rp 35 billion from sticker
sales.

"President Soeharto has urged the council to successfully host
the biennial event and to take over the overall title, which was
won by Thailand in 1995," he said.

But Wismoyo said the council could not raise all of the Rp 105
billion (US$43.75 million) needed to stage the event and groom
athletes.

"Indonesian people still need a big budget to overcome
poverty. So we ask the private sector, including the consortium,
to provide the whole budget by selling stickers," he said.

"I think the manipulation is so small and should not be over
exposed. I feel some people have their own interests in creating
such an issue," he said.

"I will never take a cent of the SEA Games funds. All fund,
which have been raised from the public, will be clearly accounted
for." he said.

Wismoyo said the Rp 105 billion budget was small compared to
the last Games, which was hosted by Chiang Mai, Thailand.

"Thailand spends $1 billion just grooming its athletes, while
we only spend Rp 35 billion (US$14.6 million) to boost ours," he
said.

The chairman of the ministry of tourism, post and
telecommunication's Jakarta branch, Pidjo Basuki, said all PT
Telkom costumers would not receive SEA Games stickers even though
they had to pay for the stickers while paying their bills.

"In our meeting with the consortium and other departments
under the ministry on May 6, we have agreed not to raise funds
from telephone costumers by selling stickers," he said.

Costumers usually pay Rp 1,000 within their telephone bills
and Rp 2,500 for cellular phone owners.

There are 1.6 million telephone costumers and 400,000 cellular
phone owners in Jakarta. (yan)