WADA Officially Lifts Sanctions For Indonesia, Red And White Bandera Can Fly Again

2021 Thomas Cup Team (INSTAGRAM @badminton.ina)

JAKARTA – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has officially lifted sanctions for Indonesia. This means that the Red and White flag can fly again in important international sporting events.

The lifting of the WADA sanctions for Indonesia was conveyed by the Chair of the Indonesian Olympic Committee (KOI) Raja Sapta Oktohari who is also the Chair of the WADA Sanctions Acceleration Task Force, in a virtual press conference on Friday, February 4.

“The threat of sanctions which was originally one year has been drastically reduced to three and a half months. Thus, the Red and White flag can fly in international events," said Oktohari.

The lifting of sanctions for Indonesia is based on recommendations from the WADA Compliance Unit at the executive committee meeting on Wednesday, February 2 local time in Montreal or Thursday, February 3 in the morning Indonesian time.

At the meeting, the Indonesian Anti-Doping Agency was judged to have complied with the rules that apply at WADA.

"We all hope that similar sanctions will not be repeated again and this incident encourages us to be more careful," said Oktohari.

Indonesia was sanctioned for not meeting WADA standards. In a statement dated October 7, they stated that LADI as the program implementer failed to meet the target for the number of annual doping tests.

The letter contained important items, one of which was to prohibit Indonesia from flying the Red and White flag at important sporting events.

In addition, this sanction also prohibits Indonesia from hosting regional, continental and international sports championships.

As a result of this sanction, the Indonesian team was not allowed to fly the Red and White flag in the procession of handing over the Thomas Cup trophy last year. In fact, it became an important moment because Indonesia ended the title drought for the last 19 years in the most prestigious team event.

In addition, lifter Rahmat Erwin Abdullah also felt a bitter experience at the 11 December 2021 Senior Weightlifting Championship in Uzbekistan. At that time, Rahmat, who won the gold medal, could not see the Red and White flag flying when he was on the podium.

With this revocation, Indonesia is free from the ban on flying the Red and White flag in important events and can host all sports championships.