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A decade of Indonesian sports
Golden grins: Indonesian badminton players Tontowi Ahmad (left) and Liliyana Natsir hold their gold medals on the podium following their victory in mixed doubles at the 2016 Olympic Games at the Riocentro Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug
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olden grins: Indonesian badminton players Tontowi Ahmad (left) and Liliyana Natsir hold their gold medals on the podium following their victory in mixed doubles at the 2016 Olympic Games at the Riocentro Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 17, 2016. (AFP/Goh Chai Hin)
In any competition, you win some, you lose some.
In the sports landscape, Indonesia has truly experienced it all over the past decade. As an Indonesian you can’t help but feel proud seeing our hardworking athletes reach their highest achievements, as well as when the nation hosted the second-largest multisport event, the Asian Games, in 2018.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, as apparently Indonesia still has a problem with graft when it comes to managing its sports.
Taking a trip down memory lane, The Jakarta Post has compiled a list of the 10 most memorable moments in sport over the past 10 years.
Badminton’s darkest era
The 2012 London Olympics left a somber feeling for Indonesian badminton, as the country’s shuttlers failed to win any medals. Since the sport’s Olympic debut in 1992, when Indonesia won two gold medals courtesy of Susy Susanti in the women’s singles and Alan Budikusuma in the men’s singles, Indonesia has consistently won gold medals in badminton at the Summer Olympic Games, except for the 2012 failure.
Mixed doubles hopefuls Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, who had the biggest chance to snatch the gold, failed to impress as they lost against Chinese pair Xu Chen and Ma Jin in the semifinals.
The London Olympics not only witnessed the country’s badminton squad exit the competition empty-handed, but also left a bitter taste for fans as women’s doubles pair Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari were disqualified from the competition after being accused of “not using one’s best efforts to win” as they did not show their best during the last match of the preliminary round against the South Korean pair Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung. Alongside the Chinese pair Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli and the two South Korean pairs Jung Kyung-eun and Kim Ha-na, and Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung, Greysia and Meiliana were thrown out of the tournament.
Golden Olympians Liliyana, Tontowi
After losing big at the 2012 Olympics, Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad made up for their failure in London by winning gold four years later in Rio de Janeiro, which also brought back the “golden tradition” of Indonesian badminton at the Olympics.
Tontowi and Liliyana won the only gold medal for the country’s contingent in Brazil after beating their toughest opponents Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China in the semifinal and Malaysia’s Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon in the final. Their gold was the only medal won by the country’s badminton squad at the competition. On the way to the 2016 Olympics, Liliyana and Tontowi also broke several records, winning the All England tournament in three consecutive years from 2012 to 2014 and winning the World Championship in 2013. Indonesia finished in 46th in the medal tally at the 2016 Games by collecting one gold and two silvers, with the silvers being contributed by weightlifters Sri Wahyuni and Eko Yuli Irawan. Liliyana decided to hang up her racket earlier this year after the 2019 Daihatsu Indonesia Masters.
Rio Haryanto’s F1 debut
Talented yet shy racer Rio Haryanto managed to put Indonesia on the international sports main stage after making his debut in Formula One (F1) with United Kingdom-based Manor Racing in the 2016 season. With the support of state-owned oil company Pertamina and the government, Rio managed to collect almost all the sponsorship fee required to secure a spot on the Manor Racing team. The total fee that Rio had to collect was 15 million euro (US$16.35 million) and Rio managed to collect 5 million euro from Pertamina and paid 7.5 million euro ($8.4 million) to the UK racing team. However, Manor decided to end the contract with the Indonesian driver in August 2016 as he was unable to fulfill his contractual obligations. Manor offered Rio a reserve driver position for the rest of the season. Rio’s F1 dream was buried as in 2017, Pertamina, his biggest sponsor, backed down after it could not meet the deadline set by the F1 teams.
Zohri enters the radar
Out of nowhere, sprinter Lalu Muhammad Zohri appeared as the new Indonesian sweetheart with his achievement at the IAAF Under-20 World Championship in Tampere, Finland in July 2018. He stunned the world by becoming the fastest in the 100 meters, clocking in at 10.18 seconds. After that, the 19-year-old sprinter from North Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, made a series of achievements, claiming silver at the 2018 Asian Games in the men’s 4x100 m relay with his teammates Fadlin, Bayu Kertanegara and Eko Rimbawan. After that, Zohri continued his winning streak by improving on his own record. He ran the 100 m in 10.13 seconds at the Asian Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar, finishing second behind Japanese Yoshihide Kiryu. He eventually secured a spot at the Tokyo Olympics after clocking in at 10.03 seconds at the Seiko Grand Prix in May, which was enough to earn him a bronze medal. He is currently the fastest sprinter in Southeast Asia, replacing his predecessor Suryo Agung Wibowo who held the title with a time of 10.17 seconds at the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar in 2009.
FIFA bans PSSI
World soccer governing body FIFA imposed a ban on the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI) in May 2015 after the government refused to lift a suspension on the PSSI. FIFA felt that the Indonesian government intervened too much in the PSSI by imposing the suspension. The ban prohibited the national team from competing in any international tournaments. Previously, the government through the youth and sports minister at that time, Imam Nahrawi, suspended the PSSI in April 2015 with the aim of reforming the whole association. The ministry and the PSSI at that time had a disagreement regarding the eligibility of clubs participating in the Indonesian Super League (ISL). The PSSI did not want to implement the suggestion made by the ministry through the Indonesian Professional Sports Body (BOPI), which declared that the association must exclude Arema Malang and Persebaya Surabaya from the league as the two clubs were in the middle of ownership disputes at the time. The local competition was halted after the ministry imposed the sanction on the PSSI. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo fully backed the suspension decision considering national soccer’s slow progress. A year after that, FIFA lifted the suspension.
Soccer match fixing
When Mochamad Iriawan earned his new role as chief of the Soccer Association of Indonesia (PSSI), the police commissioner general was expected to fix the chronic problems suffered by the association, among them match-fixing. The scandal was revealed in December last year by former manager of Persibara Banjarnegara, Lasmi Indaryani, during live television show Mata Najwa. Lasmi mentioned that PSSI disciplinary committee member Dwi Irianto and former referee committee member Johar Ling Eng were involved in illegal moves to arrange a favorable spot for Persibara in Liga 3’s league standings.
The scandal had forced the former chief Edy Rahmayadi, the North Sumatra governor and a retired Army general, to resign from the top post. The National Police have named suspects in the case including former PSSI deputy chairman Joko Driyono, who were later convicted to one-and-a-half years in prison for tampering with evidence related to the match-fixing allegations.
Death of supporter
As the most famous sport in the country, soccer attracts a huge number of loyal fans, which unfortunately leads to hooliganism. On Sept. 22, Persija Jakarta supporter Haringga Sirila was beaten to death by a number of Persib Bandung fans before a match between the two teams at Gelora Bandung Lautan Api Stadium in Bandung, West Java. Persija and Persib are known for their rivalry that always results in an intense atmosphere when the two teams encounter each other.
NGO Save Our Soccer (SOS) has recorded 70 deaths in Indonesian soccer since 1995. According to SOS data, 21 of those deaths, included Haringga’s, occurred at the hands of a mob. As for the remaining victims, 14 were stabbed with bladed weapons, 12 fell from vehicles, 11 were beaten with hard objects, six died in stampedes, two fell from stands, two died of tear gas, one died in a firecracker explosion and one was shot.
2018 Asian Games
After Vietnam withdrew as host of the 2018 Asian Games due to financial problems, Indonesia came to the rescue by taking on the responsibility to host the world’s second-biggest sporting event. Previously, Vietnam’s Hanoi defeated Indonesia in bidding for the 2018 Asiad, with the latter proposing Surabaya as the city host. Indonesia ended up hosting the Games in the capital Jakarta and South Sumatra’s Palembang, making it the first quadrennial event hosted by two cities.
In front of the home crowd, the Indonesian squad managed to finish fourth in the medal tally, its greatest ever achievement at the Asian Games. The national squad collected 31 gold medals, 24 silvers and 43 bronzes — thanks to pencak silat, in which it managed to snatch 14 gold medals. The achievement surpassed the government’s target of making it into the top 10 in the medal tally. The entertaining opening ceremony of the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno sports complex received praises from participating countries.
‘Spiderwoman’ Aries’ world record
With her signature black hijab and red jersey, national sport climber Aries Susanti Rahayu made the world gasp as she climbed the 15-meter wall in under seven seconds at the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Xiamen, China, in October. The 24-year-old climber clocked in at 6.995 seconds to bag the bronze and break the previous record. She was the first woman to climb the wall under 7 seconds. Before breaking the world record, she snatched two gold medals at the women’s speed and women’s speed relay at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra. Aries is strongest in the speed category. She is fighting for a spot at the Tokyo Olympics next year, where the sport will make its Olympic debut with only a combined category, which includes speed, lead and bouldering. However, the road to Tokyo seems muddy as she failed to grab a spot during a recent championship in Toulouse, France, which offered the biggest Olympics quota in the qualification period.
Ministers’ imprisonment
The Youth and Sports Ministry made a record after two of its ministers working in this decade were arrested for their involvement in a corruption case. Andi Alfian Mallarangeng, who worked as the sports minister under then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was convicted for his involvement in the corruption case surrounding the Hambalang sport complex graft scandal. He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay Rp 200 million (US$14,363.17) and was later freed from the Sukamiskin penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, in 2017 after receiving a three-month furlough.
National Awakening Party (PKB) politician Imam Nahrawi, who was appointed by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as the Youth and Sports Minister under his working Cabinet, followed in his predecessor’s footsteps by becoming involved in a graft case related to the National Sports Council (KONI). Imam’s case is still ongoing and he was arrested in September.
