The 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games (ISG) has received mixed reactions from locals in its host city of Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra.
Some residents said they were less enthusiastic about the event compared to the 2011 Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), which was also held in the city, due to expensive entry tickets while others said they were excited about the ISG as more countries were participating in the quadrennial event.
“I don’t want to buy expensive tickets for an event that I don’t think will be as interesting as the SEA Games,” said a local resident Mardiana.
Ticket prices for the opening ceremony range from IDR 250,000 (US$22) to IDR 1.0 million ( IDR 1.5 million even).
However, thousands of Palembang residents were seen during the opening ceremony that was held on Sunday night at the Gelora Sriwijaya, Jakabaring Sports City. The event was officially opened by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was accompanied by First Lady Ani Yudhoyono, some Cabinet members, and representatives from participating countries.
Palembang was only appointed as the host of the ISG early last month after the failure of Pekanbaru, Riau province, to meet preparation deadlines.
Pekanbaru was scheduled to host the event in June before corruption cases implicating Riau Governor Rusli Zainal finally snuffed its chances. Organizers later considered Jakarta before Palembang, host for the 2011 National Games (PON) and SEA Games, was settled upon.
The ISG, a sporting event among the members of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will run from Sept. 22 until Oct. 1. This year’s event sees 44 out of 57 OIC member countries participating. The event will showcase 13 sports with a total of 1,530 medals up for grabs.
A resident, Rusmala Dewi, said organizers failed to familiarize local residents with the event. “We are only experiencing the “side effect” of traffic jams and detouring,” she said.
Unlike Rusmala, Suaidah, 42, said that she was excited about the event.
“I booked tickets (for the opening ceremony) for my family and some of my friends a long time ago. I’m interested in the event because the participants are from Islamic countries,” she said.
She expected the event to be more interesting than the SEA Games, which only saw 11 participating countries.
According to local organizer Nirmala Dewi, it only sold tickets for popular sporting events such as basketball, tennis, indoor volleyball and badminton while the remaining events would be free of charge.
“By charging the audience (of the popular sporting events) we hope we can control the amount of people who attend those events,” she said.
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