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Poor preparations drag home squad
Ready for play: Red and white lights illuminate the newly renovated Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Friday
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span class="inline inline-center">Ready for play: Red and white lights illuminate the newly renovated Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Senayan, South Jakarta, on Friday. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo will inaugurate the stadium on Sunday, which will host a friendly soccer match between Indonesia and Iceland.(JP/Seto Wardhana)
The clock is ticking with the 18th Asian Games only seven months away, but Indonesia, as the host country, has failed to give itself the upper hand by prepping early, as recently its squad has been bogged down by technical problems, an official has suggested.
Last year, the government received criticism over slow progress in renovating venues.
In the past week, the host country has been caught in a spat over funding for the national training camp, which may jeopardize the Indonesian squad’s performance in the multisport event.
Indonesia’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Comr. Gen. Syafruddin, expressed his concerns about the disagreement over the budget for the national camp, saying he was disappointed his team was involved in such a matter.
“We should not just focus on [the disagreement],” said Syafruddin, who is also the National Police deputy chief, at the Youth and Sports Affairs Ministry in Jakarta on Friday.
“[The 18th Asian Games] is the country’s pride that we’ve been fighting for,” he said, adding that the debate should be settled immediately.
The meeting was also attended by Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Imam Nahrawi, Indonesian Olympic Committee chief Erick Thohir and other representatives from several sports federations.
Syafruddin pointed out the low exposure of the upcoming Games, which will be held in Jakarta and Palembang in South Sumatra in August. He said according to his observations, the event had yet to attract the public’s attention and had lost the battle against trending topics, such as pedophile cases.
He then compared Indonesia to Japan, which has been more serious with its promoting of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
“I went to Japan a month ago and I was amazed by their preparations. Tokyo is nearly finished with their arrangements, including the technical and administrative matters, for the 2020 Games. They’re also continuously promoting the event, which automatically increases the Games’ popularity in the world,” said Syafruddin.
Last week, a large number of sports federations complained to the ministry over recommendations for the training camp’s budget, which was below their expectations.
Initially, Vice President Jusuf Kalla had ordered the ministry to allocate no less than Rp 514 billion (US$38.2 million), or equal to 70 percent of the Rp 735 billion in the state budget for the training camp, for 40 sports federations which will partake in the Games. Meanwhile, the Asian Para Games team was supposed to receive Rp 135 billion.
However, on Thursday, it turned out that the ministry will only deliver Rp 490 billion for the Asian Games team. In the meantime, the country’s Asian Para Games squad will receive Rp 130 billion.
Prior to the complaint, only eight sports federations agreed to the ministry’s recommendation.
As of Friday, a total of 21 federations had signed a memorandum of understanding with the ministry on the training camp’s funding.
Alamsyah Wijaya, sport development head for the Indonesian Weightlifter, Powerlifter and Bodybuilder Association, said failing to resolve the budget problem would only damage the condition of sports in the country.
