An athlete in the kata category practices during a visit by Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi to the karate national training center in the Permata Hijau area of South Jakarta on Friday (9/6). During the visit, the minister apologized to the athletes for the two-month delay in the payment of the athletes’ allowance.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – The preparation of the Indonesian contingent ahead of the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games has been further rocked by the plan to limit the number of coaches and officials. The restriction has sparked many protests. Meanwhile, the problem of a lack of equipment and funding for athlete training centers and test games in a number of countries has also not been resolved.
Indonesian Sports Committee (KOI) spokesperson Hellen Sarita de Lima said that the committee had received a fund of Rp 30.5 billion to send 620 athletes to SEA Games 2017. “The budget of Rp 30.5 billion was prepared with the assumption that the number of athletes to be sent was 400 people. In reality, the Satlak Prima (a task force assigned to prepare athletes) registered more than 600 athletes, not including 125 officials. Because of this, the money is not enough,” she said in Jakarta on Wednesday (5/7).
To send the Indonesian contingent to the SEA Games, KOI has proposed a budget of Rp 42 billion. However, the government only agreed to Rp 30.5 billion. Because of the limited funds, the KOI plans to cut down the number of coaches and supporting staff.
The plan has been rejected by the management of various sports. The limitation on the number of coaches and officials is deemed baseless and to disregard the needs of athletes. “The limitation on coaches shows that they do not understand the sports world,” said Indonesian tennis team manager Goenawan Tedjo Sutikno.
The Indonesian tennis team is made up of five men’s tennis players and five women’s tennis players. The players are to be accompanied by a manager, men’s and women’s coaches and a body recovery expert. However, in a meeting with the management of sports categories, KOI said the tennis team would have their officials limited to just two personnel: manager and coach. “KOI should know that the men’s coach and women’s coach are different. The presence of a coach is a must. A body recovery expert is also needed,” Goenawan said.
The karate team has also rejected the limitation on the number of coaches. It believes that such a move will harm Indonesia’s chances of recording any achievements. For SEA Games 2017, as many as 17 karate athletes have been prepared, consisting of 10 athletes for the kata category and seven for the kumite category. The karatekas have been trained by five national coaches and one foreign coach.
Head of the karate coaching team, Philip King Galedo, explained that a karateka is usually accompanied by two to three coaches in a competition. The head coach is there to accompany the athlete when performing, while the assistant coaches’ job is to analyze the match, study the opponent and assist the athlete in preparing for the next match.
The rules of the SEA Games 2017 organizing committee states that the number of officials in a team cannot be more than 50 percent of the total number of athletes. KOI has registered 629 athletes, consisting of 534 athletes recommended by Satlak Prima and 86 additional athletes recommended and funded by parent organizations of respective sports. Meanwhile, the number of listed officials is 138 people, 14 of them additional officials not funded by the government.
Following the protests by the sports organizations, Hellen said the KOI would cancel the plan to limit the number of officials. “Now we will leave it to the needs of the sports organizations. The matter of funding will be resolved by the government. How they resolve it is the government’s problem,” Hellen said.
No point going to Sports Ministry
As of Wednesday night, the problem of funding for athlete training centers has yet to be resolved. “It’s useless to go back and forth to the Youth and Sports Ministry. It does not deliver any results,” Philip said.
As previously reported, the karate athletes currently in Japan and France to take part in a training program are in danger of not being able to resume their journey to the 14th Asian Karate-Do Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, from July 13-16, because they have run out of funds. The karate team has also found it difficult to pay for accommodation in France and Japan.
Yesterday, Philip contacted a person in order to borrow Rp 300 million. The money will be used to pay for the team’s registration in Astana because the organizing committee has reminded Indonesia to quickly pay the registration fee.
The funding for the Indonesian tennis team for competitions in Malaysia, Thailand and the Fed Cup in Tajikstan, as of Wednesday, has also not yet been confirmed. Instead, proposals for participation in competitions in Hong Kong and Egypt have been approved. “These competitions have already taken place. Now what about the upcoming competitions?” Gunawan said.
Other than the problem of training centers and test games, athletes are also waiting for the matter of equipment to be resolved. As of Wednesday, no equipment has been received by any team. The tennis team, for example, has not been given any balls or rackets whatsoever since national training started in November 2016.
Meanwhile, the climbing team has finally headed to Switzerland to take part in a Swiss Series World Sports Climbing Championship. Team manager Pristiawan Buntoro said the team’s participation was funded by the Indonesian Climbing Federation.
Sports observer Fritz Simandjuntak said the many problems leading up to the 2017 SEA Games showed that the Youth and Sports Ministry was incapable of handling affairs related to Indonesian sports.
“Since 2014, Indonesia’s preparation for the SEA Games, the Asian Games and the Olympics has always been a mess. The same problem keeps occurring. This does not indicate that the government is not serious, but shows that they do not have the capacity to handle the field of sports,” Fritz said.
