By: Jeremiah Kogoya ) *
In the midst of the corona outbreak, the XXth National Sports Week has indeed become a polemic in itself, however the government is still trying to make the PON in Papua later.
Chairman of the House of Representatives Commission X Syaiful Huda, asked the government to postpone the implementation of the 2020 National Sports Week (PON) in Papua. This is caused by the increasingly massive spread of corona virus outbreaks.
The biggest national sporting event scheduled for September 2020 is certainly unlikely to be carried out according to plan.
Syaiful explained, the development of the spread of Covid-19 in various regions in Indonesia was increasingly alarming. Currently there are 24 provinces that have been exposed to the 19th plague. In addition, the number of corona positive patients has also reached 1,046 people.
This condition certainly disrupted a number of training programs for athletes from various regions. Even though the exercise program of a sport has been arranged so that at the time of the event, athletes can reach peak performance.
He also suggested that the implementation of PON Papua be postponed for one year. Thus, both athletes and the organizers can get certainty of PON implementation time without being disturbed by co-19.
In addition, many regional and international sporting events have also been postponed due to co-19 events such as the 2020 Japan Olympics.
Likewise, the implementation of PON in Papua is forced to pay attention to the development of the corona virus spread situation.
Minister of Youth and Sports (Menpora) Zainudin Amali stressed the decision to hold PON will also be discussed with the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) at the central and regional levels as well as each ca drill.
He said, this is the situation at hand. For the government, of course the safety of the public in sports such as athletes, coaches to officials is a priority.
On the same occasion, the Menpora also discussed the postponement of national sports events such as League 1 and 2, pro leagues for volleyball sports to IBL for basketball. He then re-emphasized this decision was taken to avoid the corona virus.
Until March 26, 2020, the progress of the physical implementation of the Istora venue reached 82.95%, the aquatic venue reached 80.87% and the cricket venue and indoor and outdoor hockey fields reached 92.14%
Zainudin also stressed that the decision to organize PON will also be discussed with the Indonesian National Sports Commission (KONI) at the central and regional levels as well as each sport. Amali also added, the government would certainly have to calculate and evaluate with the increasingly widespread corona virus.
Head of Education, Sports and Market Infrastructure Development Center, Director General of Creative Works Iwan Suprijanto said that currently a joint agreement had been made between the Governor of Papua, a member of the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkompimda), the Regent and Mayor and all stakeholders in Papua Province related to prevention, peng endalian and countermeasures Covid-19.
Where one of the points is with the issuance of the policy of closing airport flights and cruise ship passengers at the entrances in the Papua region.
This will certainly affect the implementation of the construction of the PON venue because there will be difficulties in shipping material from outside the Papua region, adding workers, and bringing in certification experts. But the Ministry of Public Works and Housing continues to move in the context of completing the country’s task to build the Papua PON venue on time.
The Ministry of PUPR also still has the mandate to complete the three new PON venues, namely the Roller Skating Arena, Archery Venue and Paddle Venue whose construction began to be carried out at the end of February and the arrangement of the village of hope as a supporting area for the istora and aquatic venues whose implementation only began at the end of January. .
In addition, the arrangement of the Doya Baru area as a supporting area for the cricket, Hockey Outdoor and Hockey In door arena, the implementation of which began in late December 2019.
The outbreak of the corona virus is an extraordinary event or force majeure, even this pandemic has become a non-natural national disaster. Of course this outbreak is quite disturbing preparation activities PON XX Pa pua both in terms of venue or people involved such as athletes and officials.
However, the government is still trying to complete the construction of facilities for the PON event, of course by minimizing the crowd so that no corona virus transmission occurs.
) * The writer is a Papuan student living in Jakarta
