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ndonesia'€™s ignominious run at the recent Southeast Asian (SEA) Games has left officials playing a blame game at a lack of funding for preparations.

The failure to retain the championship won two years ago also prompted a resignation by Surya Dharma from his position as the chairman of the Indonesia Gold Program (Prima).

The 27th SEA Games, which is a multi-event sporting showcase among the 11 countries in the region, was held in Myanmar from Dec. 11 to 22, and saw Indonesia in fourth place on the medal tally behind overall champion Thailand, host Myanmar and Vietnam.

'€œI told the board of advisors at Prima a few days ago that I wanted to step down from my position because we were only able to take fourth position in the medal tally of the SEA Games, far from our target of being the overall winner,'€ Surya said on Wednesday.

'€œMaybe I'€™ve run out of innovative ways to improve our performance,'€ he said, adding that he was waiting for the formal letter of dismissal from Youth and Sports Minister Roy Suryo.

Surya will be replaced by Indonesian Sports Council (KONI) deputy chairman, Suwarno. However, he will remain in the program in a new role as deputy secretary of Prima'€™s board of advisors.

Indonesia was consigned to fourth place after it was only able to collect 65 gold medals. The contingent'€™s officials, including minister Roy, had been optimistic about winning as many as 120 gold medals in order to retain the championship title.

Only 18 of the 37 sports that Indonesia competed in at the Games yielded gold medals for the country.

In most of those sports, the gold medal collection was far from expectations.

Among others, pencak silat fighters and wrestlers ended up with a total number of gold medals that was two below target.

Karate fighters only brought home two gold medals from their target of seven.

Judo athletes, whose predecessors had traditionally been gold winners, returned home empty-handed.

In the end, the Thai team topped the medal tally with 107 gold
medals, followed by host Myanmar with 86 and Vietnam with 73 gold medals.

Surya blamed the failure on a lack of funds, which had resulted in a lack of facilities for the athletes during training sessions. The lack of funds, he said, had also prompted a cut in the number of members in the competition contingent.

The government allocated Rp 250 billion (US$20.79 million) to Prima, which is assigned to prepare athletes for six multi-sport events in 2013-2014, namely the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in South Korea in June, the Asian Youth Para Games in Kuala Lumpur in August, the Asian Youth Games in Nanjing in August, the Islamic Solidarity Games in Palembang, South Sumatra, from September to October, the SEA Games in Myanmar in December and the Asian Games in Incheon in September 2014.

The sports authority requested an additional Rp 60 billion of funding. '€œBut the government did not
approve,'€ Surya said.

Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) president Rita Subowo mentioned that unfair refereeing
contributed to Indonesia'€™s losses.

Djoko Pekik Irianto, Youth and Sports Ministry deputy chief of development affairs, refrained from pinning the blame on anyone for the failure, saying that all athletes and officials had given their best efforts during the competition.

'€œNow it'€™s time to think of how to improve synergy among stakeholders for a better result in future events,'€ he said.

Indonesian athletes will take part in the Asian Games in Incheon in September, for which the sports
authority is expecting to be in the top 10 in the medal tally.