The Indonesian Military (TNI) is rolling up its sleeves to take part in the revival of the country’s currently murky international sporting achievements by establishing the Indonesian Military Sports Committee (KOMI) on Wednesday.
“TNI is committed to revive the country’s sports achievement,” TNI Chief Commander Gen. Djoko Santoso said on the sidelines of the establishment of KOMI at the TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta on Wednesday.
“KOMI aims to better develop sport among Indonesian soldiers that will, in the end, bring
an improvement to our international sports achievements,” said Djoko.
KOMI, which is the military version of the already-established Indonesia Sports Council (KONI), is expected to be able to raise soldiers as national mainstay athletes, who will be able to compete globally, not only in military sports competitions, but in regular international events such as the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, the Asian Games (Asiad) and the Olympics.
“All this time we have had a number of national athletes recruited from military backgrounds. We want more of them to compete in the next SEA Games, Asiad or the Olympics,” said Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Andi Mallarangeng, after he and Djoko signed a MoU to intensify and broaden the country’s sports development.
Greater cooperation between sport federations and the TNI will likely emerge in the future. Only earlier this week, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Toisutta and local businessman Arifin Panigoro of the Indonesia Sport Development Foundation initiated the establishment of Soccer School for military officer candidates at the army headquarters in Central Jakarta.
“We are looking for the best 11 soccer players among the 237 million Indonesians. By 2013, we want to regain our glory, at least in Southeast Asia,” George said in a recent media release. The 30 selected soccer talents under 18 years old will begin their training regime in Secaba in Lembang, West Java in
October.
The head of the executive unit for national mainstay athletes at the high-performance Indonesia Gold Program (PRIMA), Tono Suratman, discovered that some 200 soldiers out of the overall 450,000
military personnel in TNI have the potential to be recruited as national athletes in fencing, shooting, women’s volleyball, judo, tae kwon do, sailing, track events and sky diving.
With the establishment of KOMI, TNI is aiming to make its debut at the World Military Olympic Games next year by participating in 12 of the 26 featured sports.
“We also hope that 20 percent of our national athletes sent to the SEA Games next year will come from TNI,” said Tono. Indonesia is aiming to excel as the overall champion in that biennial event, which is to be held in both Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.
In October, TNI will also send its soldier-cum-athletes at the inaugural CISM World Cadet Games in Turkey, as well as the 45th World Military Shooting Championships in Brazil in November.
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