KOI Forms Working Group to Finish Asian Games Master Plan

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-The Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) has formed a working group to finish the master plan for the 2018 Asian Games as the old KOI organizing committees could not able to finish the plan until the September deadline.

As a result, preparation for Asian Games in Jakarta has stalled and the KOI and the government are facing difficulties to executed Asian Games preparations that have been launched earlier this year.

“It’s far too late. I hope it will finish in the next two weeks,” said Youth and Sports Minister spokesperson Gatot S. Dewa Broto.

Gatot was appointed the working group’s chairman and Dody Iswandi, KOI secretary-general, was appointed as the group’s secretary. According to Gatot, the difficulty to finish the master plan is related to the KOI congress held on November 1. The congress took too much time of the old KOI committees led by Rita Subowo and resulted in Rita being replaced by Erick Thohir, her deputy.

The condition was also marred by the dualism in the networking team assigned to find candidate for chairman. Rita’s camp made their own networking team, while Erick’s camp, which is commanded by Dody Iswandi, also formed a similar team.

This situation has caused the Asian Games master plan to be seemingly forgotten. “We don’t want to blame anyone,” said Gatot. “We hope that in the next two weeks, the master plan will have finished. No more compromise.”

Dody questioned the problems that caused the old KOI not being able to finish the master plan because KOI could reflect on the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, last year. Same as Gatot, he did not want to proclaim anything. “We don’t want to discredit the last committee,” he said.

Rita Subowo, as well as Hifni Hassan, KOI secretary-general during Rita’s leadership, declined to comment. “Just ask Pak Dody who is the current KOI secretary-general,” said Hifni.

TRI SUHARMAN