World Cup and Indonesia
World Cup and Indonesia
When the World Cup games were held last month, twice a day
were they televised on RCTI which, being continued day by day as
routine events, very rapidly became taken for granted. Now that
the World Cup tournament is over, we feel that we are missing the
games very badly, as the nostalgic memory of the spectacular
matches and their beautiful goals is but a memory.
The July 1 edition of Kompas had an editorial comment under
the title: Sport too (like language) is expressive of the
nation's character. The gist of it was the editorial was paying
tribute to World Cup 2002 in that the character of the nations
conspicuously can be perceived through the performances on the
green field. How the players struggled for victory, how they
celebrated victory and how they accepted defeat are exemplary
pointers indicating a nations' character.
Under a succinct title A memorable World Cup, the Post of July
2 commemorated the world soccer event with an editorial that was
balanced in tone and substance. To the questions: where does
Indonesia fit in all this extravagance of the 2002 World Cup
fiesta, meaningfully the editorial gave a terse and crisp
response. It said that the World Cup has provided the people with
a momentary aberration to console them from the problems that
have beset the country for the last four years.
Reading the commentaries, it turned out that it gave the merit
to find the possible answer to any pertinent question or problem
being faced by the public at large. A melancholic voice was heard
time and again in a commercial tip for an energy beverage on
RCTI, posing the question: When can Indonesia join the World Cup?
This question must not be dismissed lightly as mere wishful
thinking, but must be accepted wholesale as a genuine expression
of aspiration -- a vying for international status and prestige in
the field of sport, in this case soccer.
It turned out that according to a lecturer at Gadjah Mada
University, A. Tony Prasetiantono, in his article in Kompas of
July 1, entitled World Cup in Indonesia 2030?, the quadrennial
soccer event, for national budgetary reasons, could not possibly
be realized until the year 2038.
According to the article, South Korea and Japan each spent
US$4.4 billion (or Rp 38 trillion) to host World Cup 2002. This
means three more decades roughly will be needed for Indonesia to
play host to the prestigious World Cup soccer tournament.
S. SUHAEDI
Jakarta