By: Rebecca Marian )*
National Sports Week (PON) is the biggest multi-event sports event in Indonesia, this multi-event is participated by all provinces in the whole country, all athletes competing to be able to donate medals to their regions.
This year, the implementation of PON is in Papua Province, the Government has made various preparations such as building a venue that will become an arena for competition.
The Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) through the Directorate General of Human Settlements continues to complete the construction of four sports venues that support the implementation of XX PON in Papua.
The construction of the four sports arenas was carried out in Jayapura Regency, namely the Aquatic and ISTORA Papua Bangkit venues in the Kampung Harapan Sports Area, as well as the East Sentani District and the cricket arena and the Hockey Field in Doyo Baru Village, Waibu District.
In addition to the four venues, the Ministry of PUPR is also organizing areas such as the 32 hectares of hope village. In that location, a number of supporting facilities for PON XX will be built, including athletes’ homesteads, commercial areas (malls), training or heating fields, stadium safe zones, parking arenas, toilets and areca rooms.
Previously, President Joko Widodo had warned, that the PON in Papua was not just a sports competition. But PON is a joint arena to celebrate diversity, strengthen the spirit of brotherhood and the arena of strengthening unity and unity.
Related to supporting infrastructure development. Jokowi requested that the infrastructure is not only useful during PON.
He hopes that the community can still take advantage of the infrastructure built in the long term.
So, do not let up after the implementation of the sports infrastructure PON that has been built with no small amount of costs actually not utilized and become damaged.
On a different occasion, the Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Zainudin Amali planned to keep holding 10 sports matches which had been dropped from the Papua National Sports Week (PON) 2020. The trick is to find a companion province.
PON 2020 Papua which was held from 20 October to 2 November 2020 has decided 37 sports (sports). The Government, KONI, and the PON XX Large Committee (PB) agreed to cut 3 sports then reduce 10 more sports to 37 sports.
The trimmed sports are rafting, korfball, bowling, bicycle racing, water skiing, bridge, woodball, gateball, golf, soft tennis, table tennis, dance and petanque. The government considers the venue and budget.
Of course the pruning is polemic because a number of big management / branch centers have held PON Qualifications. From the allowance, several regions have passed to PON 2020.
Then, Chairman of the DPD RI La Nyalla Mattalitti sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on January 16, 2020 to request that the sports that were crossed out remain contested at PON XX outside the Papua province. The contested medal is also counted into the standings.
The central government and KONI responded positively to the proposal. The only way to accommodate this is to make changes or revisions to government regulation No. 17 of 2007 article 12 paragraph 3 which reads.
“The Minister has appointed one or more provincial governments to host the national sports week by taking into account the results of the national sports deliberations.
Although it was held in other regions, it was not yet decided which areas would be designated as the accompanying provinces in the PON XX PONUA event.
Chairman of the KONI Center, Marciano Norman said, the chosen host would have to have a ready-made venue, so the government would not need to build again.
In addition, the availability of the budget from the area to hold the 10 sports match which was originally planned in Papua.
Until now, it is East Java Province which is said to have readiness to be the host for the Papuan PON. But there has been no written statement from KONI regarding this matter.
However, East Java Deputy Governor Emil Elistianto Dardak, claimed to be ready to collaborate with the Papua province, if indeed the East Java province was trusted by the Menpora as the co-host.
The implementation of PON XX in Papua is indeed not without obstacles, but all efforts are still carried out by the government for the implementation of the multi event in Indonesia.
)* The writer is a Papuan student living in Jakarta