Memories about the 1962 Asian Games
As a son of the first president of the Republic of Indonesia, Ir. Soekarno or Bung Karno, I feel very fortunate to be able to observe the preparatory process until the implementation and closing of the 4th Asian Games in 1962, which was carried out successfully in Jakarta.
At the time of preparation, Bung Karno as head of government instructed ministers and relevant officials to immediately build the largest sports complex in Asia, which contained all the necessary facilities. Not only for the 1962 Asian Games, but also to support sports activities, both at national and international levels, after the Asian Games were held. Bung Karno, in his instruction, ordered that in the complex, especially a stadium should be built to be the majestic and biggest in Asia, even in the world.
Infrastructure preparation
There were three instructions from Bung Karno during the construction of the stadium, in addition to the fact that the roof had to be circular (meeting bracelet), the concrete columns also had to move in a sloping position and could not be perpendicular to have artistic value. Finally, the stadium capacity is ordered to be able to accommodate a minimum of 100,000 spectators so that it could be a means for people\'s entertainment.
Besides the stadium, Bung Karno also asked for multipurpose sports buildings. It means, they could be used for various types of sports, such as tennis, badminton, and others. Similarly there had to be one swimming pool with a magnificent international standard. No less important, there also had to be a vehicle parking space for visitors whose width was sufficient to meet the needs and parks for reforestation.
Moreover, there also had to be housing for athletes and their entourages, which were located within the complex. Other supporting facilities also had to be provided, for example international restaurants up to beauty salons and barber shops. Another important thing was that there had also to be a health clinic consisting complete equipment with doctors and nurses on duty 24 hours a day.
As Bung Karno disclosed, when visiting Russia in 1958 and met with Moscow\'s leader, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, "I will make a sports site that will be remembered by the Indonesian people for the next hundreds of years."
The location of the sports complex was then decided by Bung Karno in the Senayan area. For this reason, the Jakarta Government had to move all its residents to the place that had been prepared, namely in the Tebet area. At that time, because of the interests of the nation and state, the resettlement of the population went smoothly.
To support the facilities and accommodation of guests during the 1962 Asian Games and the image of Indonesia as the organizer, Bung Karno also instructed the construction of an international standard hotel, Hotel Indonesia, outside the stadium area, as well as the Welcome statue and another one, Warta Wisma (already demolished and believed to be located on Jalan MH Thamrin area, which is now the Japanese Embassy complex).
Wisma Warta was used as a place to accommodate foreign and domestic journalists and its supporting facilities which had been prepared to enable the journalists to carry out their duties well by sending news about the Asian Games to their countries and newspapers. Meanwhile, for shopping, the Sarinah department store was built. To facilitate the traffic from and to Senayan, Bung Karno also built the Semanggi Bridge.
However, problems appeared as to how to accommodate domestic tourists and foreign tourists, who would arrive to watch the 1962 Asian Games. Bung Karno was forced to think hard. If all the hotels and inns in Jakarta were counted, certainly they would not be enough to accommodate the tourists. However, as it turned out, most of the population in the Menteng area was very good and used this momentum. They finally commercialized one of their house rooms to be rented to tourists, including serving the eating and drinking during the Asian Games.
Another problem, which later appeared, was the transportation of the guests, Asian Games participants, and tourists. As a solution, a number of ministers and organizers of the 1962 Asian Games met with Bung Karno at the Merdeka Palace. With the approval of Bung Karno, the ministers and the organizing committee members decided to buy 400-500 Fiat sedans to be used as taxis. In order to provide comfort to the users, the drivers were taken from students, youths, and also the police on condition that they had driving licenses and could speak English fluently.
Ever burned
Besides these obstacles, there were still other problems which were very fundamental in nature, namely political barriers. At that time, groups that were politically opposed to Bung Karno and his government frequently sabotaged the 1962 Asian Games so as to disrupt the event. One of the ways they used was burning the Main Stadium, which at that time was still under construction. The main stadium was constructed using nearly all the supporting concrete pillars made of bamboo because at that time the supporting poles made of iron in Indonesia had not yet existed – and by the counter-revolution groups the supporting pillars were burned down.
As a result, the main stadium concrete walls that were being built were wholly burned. Hearing this incident, Bung Karno got very angry and ordered to deal with it immediately. As soon as the fire was extinguished, all engineers from the Soviet Union and Indonesia, including architects of the Soviet Union Semerdjievf and Indonesian concrete expert Ir. Rooseno, were ordered to immediately inspect and rebuild it.
Alhamdulillah (Thanks God), from the results of the research from various angles there was no significant damage to the concrete that had only been cast for a few weeks so that the construction of the stadium could be continued immediately until it was finished. Personally, Bung Karno also visited the scene and took part to calculate whether the strength of the burned concrete pillars were still suitable for use or not to decide whether to continue its construction or not.
Because of this incident, the security level of the stadium project was increased by the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI, now TNI) at that time both openly or covertly. In short, finally all preparations could be done well 100 percent. The next activity was a dress rehearsal. After all went smoothly, on August 24 to September 2, 1962, the Asian Games were officially opened by Bung Karno as President of Indonesia.
The opening ceremony could be said to be extraordinary. As many as 120,000 Jakarta residents flocked to enter the Main Stadium. In addition to speeches, remarks from President Soekarno, there was the ignition of fire in the caldron with an eternal flame torch taken from an area of Central Java, which was carried out by a seasoned athlete in the Dutch era, Ir. Effendi Saleh. After the ignition of the Asian Games torch, mass dances from several regions were presented.
I who was present at the opening ceremony was very impressed to see mass dances originating from Aceh, namely the Seudati dance, which was performed by around 800 dancers. However, at this time, I am rather surprised as to why the Seudati dance never appears again on certain occasions, such as the opening of the Asian Games in Jakarta or the National Sports Week (PON) and other state events? Will the Seudati dance be presented again at the opening of the 2018 Asian Games like the 1962 Asian Games? Nowadays, Acehnese folk dance, which is being shown, as I see on television, is always the saman dance.
Indonesia\'s achievements
Then, what is the most memorable of all the preparatory activities until the 1962 Asian Games were held 17 years after Indonesia celebrated the independence of the Republic of Indonesia? I will answer that with my admiration for the achievements of the athlete, Mohammad Sarengat, who broke the Asian record of a 100-meter sprint with 10.5 seconds, but as far as I remember, his record was 10.4 seconds.
Moreover, Sarengat also presented two gold medals for the 110 meter hurdle race and 4 x 100 meter relay. Of the 12 Asian countries participating in the 1962 Asian Games, except for Israel, which was banned by Bung Karno from participating in, Indonesia was the second after Japan, which became the champion of the 1962 Asian Games. Of the 13 sports contested, Indonesia won 77 medals with 21 gold medals, 26 silver and 30 bronze. Indonesia was recorded to have defeated India, the Philippines and South Korea, which won total medals of 55, 27 and 15 respectively. Japan itself won 161 medals (73 gold, 65 silver and 23 bronze).
Indonesia\'s achievement position at that time was something that were very difficult to achieve by Sarengat or other national athletes. However, the achievements were truly extraordinary with the condition of Indonesia which was just the way it was and just got its independence for only 17 years! Of course, if now the next 56 years, the 2018 Asian Games are held with much better preparation and arrangement than before, the hope is that its implementation will not only be successful and extraordinary, but also its achievements. (Guntur Soekarnoputra, First Son of Indonesia’s First President Soekarno)