International Relations: The 2011 SEA Games' Impact on Indonesia

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the 2011 Southeast Asian Games held in Indonesia, focusing on its political, social, and economic ramifications. The essay highlights the games' initial purpose of enhancing Indonesia's regional political standing, but it also delves into the negative impacts, such as corruption scandals involving the President's party and inadequate preparations. The essay explores how these issues damaged Indonesia's international image and negatively affected social perceptions. Economically, while the games initially boosted tourism and the hospitality industry, rampant corruption led to setbacks in economic development. The conclusion underscores the overall detrimental effects of the 2011 SEA Games on Indonesia's political, social, and economic conditions, emphasizing the failure to achieve the intended benefits due to administrative failures.

Running Head:INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
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1INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The 2011 Southeast Asian Games was a multisport event held in Jakarta and Palembang,
Indonesia. Around 5000 athletes from 11 participating nations participated at the games that
featured approximately 550 events in 42 sports (Vaswani 2011). This essay is going to elucidate
the impact of the 2011 SEA Games on the political and social life of Indonesia. At the same time
the economic impacts are also going to be under the scrutiny of this discussion.
As far as the political impact of the SEA Games 2011 is concerned, it can be stated that
the purpose of the games was to increase the political importance and stance of Indonesia in the
South East Asian continent. As a matter of fact, from the research of Allard (2011) it can be
argued that conducting the SEA Games for the third time was driven by the fact that the country
was willing to expand its political importance within that region. However, there were several
fragmented events that made the country into the front page of the newspapers. The report of
Creak (2011) revealed that corruption and scandals that the President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party was alleged with. For instance, the Democratic Party treasurer
Muhammad Nazaruddin was accused to accept the bribe of US$ 3 million on the tenders for
constructing the athlete’s village in Palembang. Moreover, the preparation was not adequate
enough to organise an international standard Games event. Lack of accommodation in
Palembang for the athletes and the last minute supplementary changes was highly ridiculous and
portrayed a unprofessional attitude of the government. The allegation was further intensified by
Asia Sentinel article where the presence of China and its investment in the 2011 SEA Games
raised red flags against the government conspiracies (Vaswani 2011). As a result of that the
image of Indonesia in the international platform was damaged extensively. From the political
point of view, the 2011 SEA Games was jeopardy and damaged the image of the Indonesian
government intensely.

2INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
From the social point of view, the 26th SEA Games left a great deal of impact on
Indonesia. The political turmoil and mal administrative practices created a derogatory image of
the Indonesian society in front of the entire world. Allard (2011) articulated that the purpose of
the 26th SEA Games was to portray a good image of the Indonesian society and its people.
However the lack of government coordination and the corruptions nullified those efforts and
revealed the lack of integrity and cultural backwardness that the people of Indonesia had that was
created a great deal of problem for cultural influence in Indonesia.
The economic perspective was also ventilated the same picture where the situation went
against Indonesia. The research of Creak (2011) opined that since 1998 the Indonesian politico-
economic situation had been turned radically where the neoliberal economic framework was
replacing the prolonged practice of patron-client relationship. As a result of that the economy of
the country boosted through visitors arrivals. The tourism at that time boosted up to 7% during
the event with a budget of US$ 284 million (Allard 2011). Moreover, insidestory.org.au (2011)
also claimed that during the 2011 SEA Games, Indonesia had started its journey towards
achieving success in economic growth. The hospitality industry was boosted with 5.8% in the
first half of the year (Creak 2011). Nevertheless, the country failed to keep its pace due to
indiscriminate corruptions. Therefore, the impact of 2011 SEA Games arranged a major setback
for economic development in Indonesia. There are some benefits that Indonesia got in course of
organising the SEA games 2011. A number of foreign companies were liked to invest in the
business infrastructure and sports industry to be specific (Allard 2011). As a matter of fact,
Indonesia got a foothold in the international market through its immense exposure that
reinvigorating the image and culture of the country.

3INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the 26th SEA Games held in
Indonesia had a negative impact on the politics, social and economic condition of the country.
The purpose of arranging an international sports event was boomeranged due to the mal-
administrative functions like corruption and unprofessionalism that left socio-economic
consequences as well. Therefore, the SEA Games 2011 was detrimental for Indonesia in terms of
its political, social and economic situation.

4INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Reference
Allard, Tom. 2011. "Indonesian Corruption Trial Bad News For Ruling Party". The Sydney
Morning Herald. https://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesian-corruption-trial-bad-news-for-
ruling-party-20111130-1o75x.html.
Creak, Simon. 2011. "More Than A Mess: The 2011 SEA Games In Indonesia - New
Mandala". New Mandala. https://www.newmandala.org/more-than-a-mess-the-2011-sea-games-
in-indonesia/.
insidestory.org.au. 2011. "Mixing Politics And Sport". https://insidestory.org.au/mixing-politics-
and-sport/.
Vaswani, Karishma. 2011. "Sea Games Overshadowed By Corruption". BBC News.
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-15682856/indonesia-s-sea-games-overshadowed-by-
corruption-allegations.