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