April 11, 2026 | 08:02 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto wants pencak silat martial arts to become one of the sports contested in the Olympics. He conveyed this while attending the 16th National Conference of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association (PB IPSI).
During the occasion, Prabowo said he will continue working to include pencak silat in the Olympics. "There is a long road ahead of us, [but] we hope pencak silat will enter the Olympics, and we are confident that it will," said Prabowo on Saturday, April 11, 2026.
But Prabowo said he did not wish for the Olympics to be the sole goal for this traditional martial art. "We should not be overly obsessed; our focus must be on maintaining the quality and purity of pencak silat itself," he said.
He added that if pencak silat remains pure and strong, many people from around the world will come to Indonesia to learn it, as has already been proven with athletes from various countries coming to study the martial art.
Indonesia, said Prabowo, must become the teaching center for pencak silat, and it mattered not if other nations became better at the sports. "We used to train Vietnam, Thailand, and eventually, they became great and even defeated us. That's okay because that's the duty of the teacher," said Prabowo.
In the same event, Prabowo also stated that he will not run again to become the chair of PB IPSI, as he had held the post for about 23 years. IPSI would elect Prabowo's successor during the conference.
The former defense minister also apologized for not succeeding in bringing pencak silat to the Olympics during his tenure.
“There are many tasks ahead for PB IPSI. I apologize that I have not yet succeeded in bringing pencak silat to the Olympics. We will keep trying. I believe my successor will succeed in bringing it to the Olympics,” Prabowo said.
Read: Main Reason Pencak Silat Has Not Been Able to Compete in the Olympics
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