State Agencies’ Contribution Needed

KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN

The exteriors of office buildings in Sudirman Central Business District in Jakarta are used to display advertisements for the 18th Asian Games on Saturday, May 5. Inasgoc is seeking to expand its promotional activities on a national scale to areas outside Jakarta and Palembang.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – As an event that represents the entire nation, promoting the 2018 Asian Games should be the collective responsibility of state agencies, ministries, the military and the police. Promotions through state agencies are necessary to reach all parts of Indonesia to fulfill President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s call for a massive, widespread promotion for the upcoming international sports event.

In two recent limited Cabinet meetings on the 2018 Asian Games, the President asked that all state agencies be involved in promoting the sports events in all regions across Indonesia. This is because the Asian Games will represent Indonesia as a whole instead of just the host cities, let alone just the Indonesia Asian Games 2018 Organizing Committee (Inasgoc).

At Sunday’s (6/5/2018) promotional event for the 2018 Asian Games called “BRI Sunday Fest” in Jakarta, Inasgoc chair Erick Thohir said state agencies had an important role in promoting the Games.

Referring to Presidential Instruction No. 3/2018 on Acceleration of Development and Rehabilitation of Sports and Supporting Infrastructures for Asian Games 2018 and Asian Para Games 2018, all state agencies have been requested to be involved in ensuring the success of the two sports events.

“If state agencies like the National Police are actively involved in promoting the Asian Games, it will be great. They have a lot of manpower and a widespread network in all regions across Indonesia that Inasgoc cannot possibly reach,” said Erick.

National Police ministerial and institutional cooperation bureau chief Brig. Gen. Herry Wibowo said the police had around 500,000 personnel that could be deployed in promoting the Asian Games.

President Jokowi has highlighted the Games’ promotion on several occasions in the past month. In two limited cabinet meetings at the Bogor Palace on Apr. 18 and at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on May 4, he said that Indonesians were merely warm and not yet at a fever pitch for the upcoming Games. The President said he hoped that the Asian Games would unite the nation.

Limited budget

On a number of occasions, Erick said that Inasgoc’s limited budget was among the reasons behind the lack of promotion for the Asian Games.

After efficiency measures, Inasgoc’s budget was cut to Rp 5.6 trillion (US$403.2 million). However, the government only approved Rp 4.5 trillion before taxes, resulting in a budgetary shortfall. Support amounting to more than Rp 700 billion was then gathered from 38 sponsors to make up for the shortfall.

The budgetary shortfall has limited Asian Games promotion, which has been focused on the host cities of Palembang and Jakarta, as well as parts of West Java. “With such a limited budget, we cannot possibly cut back crucial items such as athletes’ meal allowances. We ended up cutting the promotions budget,” Erick said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Herry said that the National Police would help promote the Games by holding activities and social media campaigns, including putting up Asian Games banners, decorating police offices with Asian Games paraphernalia and holding sports events with local communities. “The military and the police had originally been tasked with security [for the Games]. However, upon the Presidential Instruction, we will actively promote the event to all regions in Indonesia,” said Herry.

As a state-owned enterprise and a 2018 Asian Games sponsor, state-owned lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) would also promote the event. BRI institutional relations director Sis Apik Wijayanto said in Jakarta on Sunday that the bank had been promoting the Games within the past year by issuing banking products bearing the Asian Games logo. The bank will also hold activities with 23 community partners and be involved in the Asian Games torch relay that will start on May 10.

In terms of ensuring achievement, on the 100th day before the Asian Games, Deputy IV for the improvement of sports achievement Mulyana of the Youth and Sports Ministry said that he had asked athletes to focus on training. He said that many athletes had shown great results in trial events. “However, this must not be used as a benchmark for guaranteeing achievement, as they will be pitted against diverse competitors in the Asian Games,” he said in Jakarta on Sunday.

(DRI/DNA)