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The Great Game (Intermission): The Unexpected Entry of the Athletes
_{January, 1970}

As Indonesia’s elite played a high stakes game for the future of the nation, undercutting and plotting against one another the country continued on as usual. Ordinary life, both inside and outside the nation went on as if nothing grand was happening behind the scenes. Perhaps, one of the greatest symbols of this was Indonesia’s continuing participation in international sport. Indonesia had sent a delegation to the 1968 Summer Games and its national team had fought for a spot in the prestigious FIFA World Cup. Much to the frustration and embarrassment of many Indonesians, the country had underperformed in both. No medals during the Summer Olympics and Indonesia’s National Football Team, arguably its most popular national sports team, had failed to qualify both for the regional Asia Cup and for the coveted World Cup. The bottom line was that Indonesia was seriously behind when it came to sport.

Indonesia’s failure to qualify or even stand out significantly in international sport didn’t go unnoticed by the average Indonesian. Young Indonesians in particular, the majority of whom had access to radio and television were very invested in the country’s performance abroad and upon seeing it underperform they made their complaints known. Over the next few months, the offices of both the President and the People’s Consultative Assembly were inundated with letters demanding that the government act to support Indonesian sport. Athletes from the Indonesian Olympic Committee and the Indonesian Football Association along with several other national sport organizations signed letters of protest to President Suharto and the Speaker of the Assembly, Abdul Haris Nasution who in their eyes had done little to support national sport.

However, it wasn’t until the Indonesian Student’s Action Front (KAMI) became involved that the demands of Indonesia’s athletes were finally heard. The Action Coordination Committee (Komite Koordinasi Tindakan - KKT) signed the letters penned by the Indonesian Football Federation and Olympic Committee, prompting both Suharto and Nasution to take some form of action or risk angering the nation’s most powerful youth group. Both national sporting groups had made simple demands. They wanted support from the National Government, additional funding and better infrastructure to train their athletes. The Olympic Committee in particular requested that Jakarta provide them with resources to form a national scholarship program to attract young talent to sports, taking advantage of Indonesia’s youth moving to the cities in search of better opportunities and a better education.

KAMI’s intervention and a strange and growing interest by the Radikal faction eventually pushed both Nasution and Suharto to work together to make their demands a reality. While rare, both Suharto and Nasution had seen the threat posed by such a seemingly contentious issue. To many, sport was a symbol of national pride and prestige, and that had been enough for many radicalized students to back efforts to ensure Indonesia properly invested in its athletes. Refusing to support them could be interpreted as rejection of Pancasila. After all, wasn’t nationalism and pride in the nation one of the only things keeping Indonesia together?

In the end, Indonesia’s athletes received what they wanted and more. Motivated largely by self-preservation, Nasution and Suharto had agreed to give national sporting bodies significant autonomy and authority over funding provided by the National Government. The People’s Consultative Assembly unamimously passed two bills related to sports.

One, dubbed the Sports in Education Act would provide funding for the expansion of sports infrastructure in high schools and universities and provide scholarships for students based on their performance and recognized athletic talents, and gives the Ministry of Education a mandate to expand the curriculum to include physical education as a main part of all schools across the country. The second bill, dubbed the Patriotic Sports and Youth Enrichment Act, forms the MPR Committee on Sports tasked with specifically hearing the concerns of national sports organizations. The bill goes further by mandating that annual budgets contain funding for sports adjusted for inflation and finally, it also declares specific sports as having “national importance.” These were listed as:

• Football

• Canoeing

• Cycling

• Rowing

• Sailing

• Shooting

• Diving

• Swimming

These sports would receive additional funding, including extra support for infrastructure and the training of new athletes. Finally, the Act also includes a provision for the construction of a so-called “national sports center” in Indonesia’s future capital. This final section of the bill was added by Suharto at the last minute despite opposition from Nasution who saw it as excessive and unnecessary. Despite his opposition, blocking the bill would have been disastrous for the MPR, giving the President the upper hand in short-lived conflict.

While the new laws have certainly satisfied the high demands of Indonesia’s athletes, only time will tell if state support for sport will propel Indonesia forward in international sport as fast as many within the sports community believe. Regardless, emotions have died down on the issue and now, many within the top national sporting organizations particularly the Football Association of Indonesia and the Indonesian Olympic Committee have gathered to begin the difficult task of distributing government funding and outline plans for the future of Indonesian sport.