[font=Helvetica, Arial]Sutiyoso named new PBSI chairman[/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica]Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta Post [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica]Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso won the chairmanship of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) on Saturday after contender Dahlan Iskan withdrew his bid just before the votes began during an extraordinary meeting here.[/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] Sutiyoso replaced outgoing chairman Chairul Tanjung for the 2004-2008 term with the challenging task ahead of raising Indonesia's badminton performance. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] Chairul should have served out his term until 2005 but he was forced to resign as he was deemed incompetent of the job. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] While the prospect ahead is daunting, Sutiyoso's rise to the chairmanship was not as hard as expected as Dahlan, who had the support of scores of provincial chapters, raised a white flag before the race began. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] "I knew that I would lose in the voting after observing the situation here. I don't want to prolong the meeting because this is Saturday night and everybody should be having fun, instead of being stuck here," Dahlan, who was nominated by the East Java chapter, told reporters just after he withdrew. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] The voting would have involved an overall 384 votes from 29 provincial chapters and 355 regency-level chapters. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] Sutiyoso, who is backed by a group of former players and 23 provincial chapters, spoke about his future plans but said he would not dare make any changes in the PBSI body in the near future. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] "The Olympic Games is coming soon and I don't want to make any drastic changes right now, I will continue the association's training program for the shuttlers and give them extra motivation to compete in Athens," he told reporters in a press conference after the meeting. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] Sutiyoso said that he would prioritize winning the Thomas Cup in Japan in the next two years and raising the performance of the women's team so it could at least make it to the final in the Uber Cup competition. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] He also saw the need to improve communication between PBSI's central board and its chapters, as such problems were responsible for Chairul's ouster. [/font] [font=Arial, Helvetica] Being the chairman of the Indonesian Governors Association, he said, would make it easier for him to coordinate with the regions.[/font]
I though it already that Sutiyoso will win. I hope that PBSI will back to his glorie again. Why ? Because Sutiyoso is militair, all the militairy PBSI's heads got a good result. Look at : Try Sutrisno, Bambang Soebagio and Soeryadi.
