The 2018 Asian Games will mostly be remembered for two things: host country Indonesia’s surprisingly hefty gold medal haul and the mind-blowing, mesmerizing Acehnese Ratoh Jaroe dance performed by 1,600 high school girls from Jakarta during the opening ceremony (up there with the synchronized drummers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, we say, without any hint of bias).
However, just as the dancers deceived our eyes with their clever costume change trick mid-dance, some of them too felt they too were deceived by organizers and their schools after they say they weren’t paid for their time and effort, although it appears it might be a case of misunderstanding between the two parties.
Over the past few days, rumors have been swirling on social media that students from two of the participating high schools, SMAN 23 and SMAN 78, did not receive payment for taking part in the Ratoh Jaroe dance, culminating in suspicion that the money might have been swiped by school officials before it could reach the kids.
“Yes, I haven’t received any money at all from the school,” one Ratoh Jaroe dancer from SMAN 23, identified by her initial S, told Merdeka on Wednesday.
However, the schools denied there was any money given to them specifically as a fee for the girls’ dancing, and instead they say they were only given operational money to cover the girls’ transportation, food, etc. during training sessions and the opening ceremony, meaning the dancers essentially volunteered at the event.
The Indonesian Asian Games Organizing Committee (Inasgoc) claims they already paid the girls’ operation costs — reportedly around IDR200,000 (US$13.50) per dancer for every practice session — to each school through third-party event organizer Lima Arus. The schools say they will give the dancers any of the unspent operational money by the end of this week.
We hope none of the dancers will be shortchanged and that will eventually receive every rupiah they are entitled to, because they did a lot to showcase the beauty of Indonesian culture to the world with their stunning performance.
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