The Declining of Sports Achievement in Indonesia

              Have you ever heard the golden era of Indonesian Sport in 1980’s until 1990’s? Yes, in that era, Indonesia got many achievements in several kinds of sports, such as football, badminton, boxing, and so on. We could see the victory of Susi Susanti in Olympic Games 1992. She got a gold medal in Women’s Single Badminton. It was the first gold medal for Indonesia in Olympic Games. Almost all Indonesian people welcomed her with joy in Jakarta. But now, we can see that it’s very difficult for Indonesian athletes to attain a gold medal. Many people state their opinion concerning about the things causing this bad achievement. But I think, there are  several things that cause the declining of sports achievement in Indonesia.

             First of all, lack of funding and priority cause the problem. A data shows that the calculation for sports in Indonesia is about 3 % from total budget of APBN. This budget is far from standard. This situation does not happen in other Asian countries, like Thailand or Malaysia. They have increased their sports budget higher than Indonesia. As a result, their athletes always become the winner in so many competitions. The other problem is a difficult birocration. As we know that every sport program must be approved by  the parliament first. This condition makes the program for athlete is obstructed because there is no enough budget to support the program. So, if the government knows that increasing budget is very crucial, it has to move fast to eliminate all obstacles in achieving the great achievements.  

            Second, the spread of sports facilities in Indonesia is not equal. As we know that the region of Indonesia is from Sabang until Merauke. Then, Indonesia is divided into 33 Provinces. The development of each province is exactly not equal and neither are the sports facilities. There are only five cities in Indonesia that have a Sports Complex, like Jakarta, Palembang, Samarinda, Makassar, and Solo. As a consequence, many athletes couldn’t practice regularly. We can see now many outstanding athletes in rural areas can not improve their skills because there are no adequate facilities. This problem influence a lot on reaching maximum results.

Last but not least, there is no guarantee from the government that the athlete will have a better future. Especially for the young athlete, they have no motivation because theris no guarantee about their future. Not only the young athelete,  but also the firmer athlete has same condition like the young one.  The government has to know that if there is no guarantee of old days for former athletes and young athlete who has  excellent achievement, it will hamper efforts of regeneration in our sport team.

            In brief, low budget, inequality of sports complex, and the guarantee of athlete’s future, prove that Indonesia is facing a very serious problem that must be solved by the government immediately. Based on those real facts, the government must do something right away to improve this sad condition. The government should increase the budget for sports in APBN, build the sport complex in every province in order to accommodate the necessary of the athlete, and guarantee the athletes’ future in order to make a good regeneration. If the government does those three things seriously, we all can hear “Indonesia Raya song” in every competition in the world.