The Surabaya City Government is urging the Indonesian Table Tennis Association (PTMSI) of Surabaya to immediately hold an Extraordinary City Conference (Muskotlub). This step is taken to accelerate the formation of a new definitive management team in order to optimize preparations for the East Java Provincial Sports Week (Porprov).
The urgency came to light after the Deputy Mayor of Surabaya, Armuji, held a meeting with the Caretaker Chairman of PTMSI Surabaya, Samsurin. The meeting agreed that the Muskotlub will be held in early August in Surabaya to elect a new leader for the table tennis organization in the 'City of Heroes'.
On the occasion, Armuji highlighted the decline in Surabaya's table tennis achievements, which he deemed contradictory to the city's great potential. He revealed serious issues with the athlete selection system in the past, which lacked transparency and tended to use subjective, direct appointment methods.
As a result of the poor recruitment system, many talented table tennis athletes native to Surabaya chose instead to represent other regions, ranging from Sidoarjo, Malang, Semarang, to Jakarta. Armuji regretted this exodus of potential athletes and hopes that the new management will be able to stop this trend through fairer development programs.
As one of the hosts for the upcoming East Java Porprov, Surabaya is targeted to dominate the gold medal tally in the table tennis sport. Through solid and transparent management post-Muskotlub, the athlete development process is expected to run effectively to restore the glory of Surabaya's table tennis.
