"I am often ashamed when asked by friends in Jakarta (about it) and after meetings there are always people who come to me and say students in Makassar are very good at brawling," he said at Campus II of the Indonesia Muslim University (UMI) here on Saturday.
The minister who hails from South Sulawesi said youths from South Sulawesi had great capabilities in many fields from sports to science.
However, he said, reports on student fights always spread faster than information about their positive activities and thus South Sulawesi students` achievements often got less attention.
"We will focus on developing sports and athletes because this nation is a big nation and has quality human resources," he said referring to the achievements made by the country`s athletes in the recent SEA Games.
He said there were around 19 athletes from South Sulawesi who joined the country`s contingent in the 26th SEA Games in 2011 and grabbed medals including gold medals in various sport branches.
He said South Sulawesi was one of seven provinces that contributed the most gold medals to the country in the Southeast Asian sports event.(*)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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