T

he 27th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games closing ceremony is only hours away, but it is obvious that Indonesia will not finish higher than fourth place in the medal tally.

With only 61 gold, 66 silver and 92 bronze medals collected as of Friday night, the national contingent'€™s takings were far from the original, yet unrealistic, target set by Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo of winning 120 of the 460 gold medals on offer in 33 sports.

When hosting the 2011 Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia emerged the overall champion with 182 of the 545 gold medals at stake

This time around, Thailand has restored its billing as the regional powerhouse and will head the final medal tally ahead of host Myanmar and Vietnam, which has regularly beaten giant Indonesia at the SEA Games.

The performance of Myanmar, which has been trying to show to the world that it has transformed into an open state, surprised everyone. The host nation performed superbly to overcome its more advanced Southeast Asian neighbors.

Indonesia'€™s target of 120 gold medals was deemed unrealistic in the first place as it had not prepared well for Olympic medal sports, where the most medals are on offer. In Myanmar, 41 golds in aquatic sports and 46 golds in track and field were up for grabs during the Dec. 11 to 22 Games. Thailand collected 17 gold medals from track and field, against Indonesia'€™s six.

Indonesia also performed disappointingly in martial arts, which offered a total of 121 gold medals '€” 18 in judo, 17 in karate, 18 in kempo, 14 in Muay Thai, 15 in pencak silat, 21 in taekwondo and 18 in vovinam.

Rowing is among the few sports in which Indonesia managed to surpass its target. At Ngalike Dam, Indonesian rowers won five out of nine races. '€œOur lads gave their best and surpassed the target,'€ said chairman of the Indonesian Rowing Association (PODSI) Ahmad Sutjipto, who had expected his team to win just three gold medals.

In soccer, the most favorite sport of all, Indonesia reached the second successive final match after beating defending champion Malaysia in the semifinals in a penalty shootout. A soccer gold medal has eluded Indonesia since 1991, despite painstaking efforts by the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI), which included a naturalization program.

Indonesia'€™s poorest performance in the SEA Games was in 2005 in Manila, where the national team finished fifth overall. The mediocre achievement should have served as a wake-up call for all sports stakeholders.

Making its SEA Games debut in 1977, Indonesia used to dominate the event until 1997 '€” with the exception of 1985 and 1995 when Thailand was the host. The Asian economic crisis in the late 1990s prevented Indonesia from developing new talents in Olympic medal events like track and field, aquatic sports, gymnastics and shooting. The lack of focus on the sports has cost Indonesia its supremacy in the SEA Games, let alone a chance to challenge sporting giants in higher level competitions such as the Asian Games and the Olympic Games.

In both the Asian Games and the Olympics, Indonesia has relied heavily on badminton and weightlifting, although they offer fewer medals than track and field and swimming. Badminton lifted Indonesia to fame, but the country no longer reigns supreme. China is now the strongest badminton force in the Asian Games, the Olympics and competitions sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).

The long-standing debate over whether champions are born or made is no longer relevant in sports development today. Everybody, including top athletes, would agree that science and technology help sportspeople live up to the Olympic motto of faster, higher and stronger.

The acute problem facing Indonesia in developing sports is lack of commitment on the part of parents, schools, society, the government and other stakeholders.

Parents, particularly those in urban areas, spend less time on exercise and other outdoor activities with their families, which would otherwise enable them to introduce their children to sports at an early age. Worse yet, public (and green) spaces are rare, which discourages people from engaging in sports.

Schools do not allocate enough time for physical education that would help children improve their agility and endurance. Due to the lack of exercise, it is no wonder that Indonesian children face the threat of obesity as revealed in 2010 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) data, which stated that obesity among children below 5 increased to 14 percent from 11 percent in 2007.

Society and the government are preoccupied by daily problems, such as worsening gridlock on our roads, increasing prices of staple food and the soaring cost of living, not to mention pressing issues like corruption eradication and preparations for the elections next year.

Sports minister Roy Suryo needs to sit down with other sports development stakeholders, especially National Sports Council chairman Tono Suratman and Education and Culture Minister M. Nuh, to discuss a thorough and integrated sports development program. It would require changes in the curriculum for students '€” starting from kindergarten to university level '€” that would help the nation scout for sports talents.

The government has to build a solid foundation for improving sports development or Indonesia will never be able to bounce back to reach the top spot at an international level.

There is no need to search for a scapegoat for the SEA Games debacle. What matters now is evaluating the national squad'€™s performance as a lesson for the team'€™s preparation for the next event in Singapore in two years as well as the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, next year and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The writer is managing editor of The Jakarta Post.