Sunday, December 24, 2017
APPI Needs To Respond To 'Traitor' Slurs
The PSSI chairman has been in the news recently. The military man who is also a candidate for the governorship of North Sumatra has reacted angrily to the prospect of Indonesian footballers having the gall to go and ply their trade overseas.
He first made the comments when Bhayangkara duo Evan Dimas and Ilham Uddin were signed by Malaysian side Selangor, calling the pair unpatriotic, whatever that means.
Sadly the notion of nationalism is never far from the surface in political discourse and it's not just Indonesia as we see countries like UK and USA dress up obscene policies in the bows and ribbons of patriotism.
This though is the first time I have seen footballers being accused of lacking a love of their country because they want to try their luck overseas. Football has long embraced globalisation and it is common to see players pack their boots for foreign lands.
Indonesia of course has benefited. The national team is coached by a Spaniard. A Scotsman led Bhayangkara to the title. A Brazilian is one of the most successful coaches in the country. A Montegran and a Uruguayan have become naturalised Indonesians in recent years.
However the PSSI chief hasn't backed down. he has now taken to saying any players that don't answer their nations call up are traitors! As he cranks up the flag waving rhetoric it is easy to see how impressionable young men who have been brought up in a culture where deference to 'superiors' is imgrained (part of the nationalism I guess?), may have second thoughts about advancing their careers overseas.
Where is the players' union APPI in all this? Are they standing up to the PSSI by explaining ow football works and how the national team can benefit from players being exposed to different environments? Surely if there was a time for the likes of Bambang Pamungkas and Ponaryo Astaman to speak up it is now? For a generation leagues and players have benefited from trying their luck in different leagues. Now is not the time for Indonesia to go inward looking but it needs the experienced pros to stick their heads above the trenches and speak out.
# posted by Me @ 8:52 AM 
