The Summer Olympics enters its fifth day today since the spectacular opening ceremony in Beijing on Friday, but you wouldn't know that if you are living in Jakarta and other parts of Indonesia. While most of the world turn their eyes to the greatest international sporting show on earth, watching the athletes from all corners of the world fight for honor and country, here in Jakarta we seem to be going about our business as usual.
The Olympics fever that is now spreading across the world is hardly felt in Indonesia, even after lifter Eko Yuli Irawan presented the country with its first medal at the Beijing Olympics in the 56-kilogram weightlifting division Sunday.
How many people in this country cheered Eko to go for that medal, and how many cried in joy with him when he received the medal? It couldn't have been that many.
TVRI, the state-run television station which bought the broadcasting rights for the 2008 Games, is only providing highlights of the Olympic coverage each day, instead of day-long live coverage.
It's hardly comforting for Eko, and for other Indonesian athletes competing against the best in the world in Beijing, to be contesting knowing that no one back home is watching.
This will be a repeat of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, when Taufik Hidayat fought it out to present Indonesia with the only gold medal, while his 200 million plus compatriots' attention was elsewhere. And when Indonesia Raya played, the gold medalist from badminton's men single shared that glorious moment with only a few other Indonesians in Athens plus a few of us back home who were lucky enough to have had access to the Olympic Games through pay television.
Expatriates in the country are baffled at the lack of enthusiasm Indonesia is showing toward what is undoubtedly one of the greatest shows on earth. I am not only talking about the opening ceremony, which was grand, also but the entire competition, with all its drama and tragedy.
Commercial TV stations are also paying scant attention to the Games, running highlights of the tournament each day. One new cable company is offering four channels of the Games 24 hours a day, but this is more a sales gimmick aimed at a niche of the Indonesian audience, rather than something intended for the masses. So, even if there is a large interest in the Olympics, most people are unlikely to have the access to watch them.
The English Premier League seems to be far more popular than the Olympics. Remember the strong public protests when people learned that the broadcasting rights, for years in the hands of free-to-air channels, went to a local cable company last year? The failure of free-to-air TV stations to broadcast the Summer Olympics, for the second time running, did not evoke as much protest.
What is wrong with this country?
Why are we so indifferent to something when other parts of the world consider watching the Olympics a God-given right? We, too, used to take the Olympics for granted in the 1990s up until the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when the events were still broadcast live by commercial TV stations.
One probable explanation is the lack of national leadership. More than 50 presidents and prime ministers attended the opening ceremony in Beijing on Friday. Our own Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was absent. The highest Indonesian delegation sent on Friday was some unknown assistant to the state minister of sports and youth.
How low of an opinion is the government sending to the public about what it thinks of the Olympics? If the government doesn't think it's that a big deal, then how do you expect the public at large to have any enthusiasm?
Indonesia may have its own domestic problems to attend to, and our political leaders, including the President, are probably too busy focusing on next year's elections, but as a nation we have become so insular that we have deliberately decided to miss the Summer Olympics entirely. And in the process, we are missing out on everything that the Games represent, from the quest to excel, competition, fairness, solidarity, friendship and other values.
Indonesia is not and has never been a great sporting nation, thanks to this laid-back attitude all the way from the top.
We thought that at the very least, we could be a decent spectator, and feed our children with dreams that Indonesia can be a great nation on par with others in the world some day. Sadly, that is no longer the case.
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