Indonesian national featherweight champion Jundullah Muhammad Fauzan is clear eyed and focused when squaring off against opponents, but it is outside the ring that the young athlete fights his toughest battle.
For nearly a decade, Fauzan was hooked on crystal methamphetamine, and kicking the habit has not been easy, but the 29-year-old keeps his demons at bay training alongside fellow addicts at a grassroots gym in Bandung, where boxing is blended with rehab in a unique program.
“Staying clean is a hard journey,” Fauzan said in Bandung, a mountain-fringed city on Indonesia’s main island of Java. “I don’t want to have too many expectations, but boxing has definitely helped my life.”
Photo: AFP
He is not the only one. The simple gym where he trains — kitted out with punching bags, sparring gloves and couches for downtime — has provided a rare safe haven for countless drug users in a country where addiction often leads to jail time or premature death.
Indonesia has some of the toughest narcotics laws in the world. Users can be jailed for possessing even the smallest quantities of common recreational drugs like marijuana, while 14 traffickers were executed last year.
The hardline approach has been justified by Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who claims Indonesia is facing a “drug crisis.”
The Indonesian Narcotics Agency estimated that last year, there were 4.2 million drug users across the sprawling archipelago of about 255 million.
The highest number were concentrated in West Java Province, where Bandung is the capital.
A dearth of rehabilitation services in Bandung prompted five recovered addicts to open Pine House, an initiative aimed at empowering drug users and people living with HIV/AIDS through a mix of sports and counselling.
Ginan Koesmayadi, one of the founders, said they started with soccer clinics, but in 2013 expanded to boxing, where they struck on a winning formula.
Recruiting experienced coaches and kitting out a simple, outdoor gym in downtown Bandung with punching bags and skipping ropes, Pine House soon attracted a dedicated band of boxing enthusiasts.
In between jump-rope sessions, hook classes and sparring, the amateur boxers meet with counselors to discuss their medical issues and progress overcoming their addictions.
Eva Dewi Rahmadiani trains several times a week at the gym and enjoys feeling strong again after years of illness from addiction and HIV.
She said the sessions were brutal at first, but over time, the urge for drugs faded, and she felt a new vitality, despite the draining effect of antiretrovirals on her system.
“It just makes me happier. It elevates my spirit and reminds me that life isn’t over,” the young mother of three said between workouts.
Koesmayadi said users were relieved simply to find a place free of prejudice — a rarity in Indonesia where addicts report harassment by police and exile from their communities.
“The stigma drives drug users deeper into despair, and their health ultimately worsens,” he said.
Activists largely disagree with the government’s approach to tackling drugs, saying it extends largely to religious intervention or law enforcement, with little emphasis on rehabilitation.
A spokesman for the government’s narcotics agency admitted the country lacked extensive facilities for treating addiction, but denied the focus was exclusively on punishing users.
“The government has been trying recently to strike a balance between rehabilitation and law enforcement, but perhaps it can seem like we only care about prosecutions,” Slamet Pribadi said.
From chronic meth addict to national boxing champ, Fauzan is the undisputed poster boy from this humble gym.
However, there are others following in his footsteps, seeking out a new life away from drugs, despair and constant threat of incarceration.
Resnu Sundava was drinking at 10, doing drugs by his teens and getting into fights on a regular basis. By the time he dropped out of high school, his addiction had spiralled out of control and friends and family had abandoned him.
However, he has improved remarkably since joining the gym last year and seeing counsellors on a regular basis. The 22-year-old recently turned professional, and has competed in tournaments in Indonesia and East Timor.
“Now I have the courage to dream again,” he said. “I want to be a world champion.”
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB