Letter: RI’s quietness about Olympic Games

Paper Edition | Page: 8

After reading Rizal Ramli’s article “Its all about rent seeking, not nationalism”, (the Post July 6), regarding the political elite’s preoccupation with money over the national good, I’m moved to question why there is still hardly a murmur in the national press about the Olympic Games, now barely a few weeks away.  

Is the preoccupation with “rent seeking” again going to prevent this massive, awakening nation from being part of the world’s greatest global celebration of our common humanity?

Access to the Olympic Games on national television (not just for the moneyed few with cable TV) is the once-every-four-years opportunity to expose Indonesians to their membership in the family of nations — even if we don’t yet field athletic champions.

Are we to miss a chance for the average Indonesian to override the nationalist chauvinism propounded by the elites, and to share, in real time, the one global celebration which binds us all together — the truly transparent rite of striving for excellence, under the common umbrella of fairness and honor?   

Lawrence Blair
Bali