The National Sports Week (PON) is a multi-pronged sporting event attended by all provinces in Indonesia. This year Papua gets an allocation to host the national scale event. The Papuan people responded positively to the event, so they were expected to be able to promote Papua to the world.
The Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) Papua Province also asked for the support of indigenous peoples to support the Training Center (TC) of Papuan athletes who will compete in the XX National Sports Week (PON) on October 02-13, 2021.
Meanwhile, the Jayapura City government has also prepared a number of beach tourism objects to support the implementation of the XX Papua PON in the Jayapura city cluster, Papua.
Jayapura Mayor Benhur Tomi Mano (BTM) in Jayapura said, God gave our land to Port Numbay with all the beauty of its coastal tourism objects, so that it can bring in income for welfare, especially during PON 2021, where of course tourists will flock to Jayapura city.
He admitted that the beauty of beach tourism objects in Jayapura City is a good opportunity to bring in money for the beach management community.
On a different occasion, the secretary of the Papua Province Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) Kenius Kogoya hopes that all Papuan people will always be optimistic and support the implementation of the XX 2020 National Sports Week (PON) in Papua.
Kenius said that PON does not only belong to the government and KONI, but also belongs to all citizens in Papua.
He invited the whole community not to be pessimistic and to be optimistic that PON must be successful in Papua. We must not respond to the things that are not good here, even though they know something is going on in Papua, but support for this event must remain solid.
For Papua, PON is a very important event, because this event will of course be an added value for equitable development in Papua to equitable economic development in Papua. Because the success of PON is not only a matter of successful implementation and successful achievements.
This national event should be supported because PON is able to improve the economy of the people in the villages, especially when people can sell local Papuan accessories, as well as local specialties that can be sold at tourist attractions. This of course will boost economic sales, even PAD in each region designated as a PON cluster.
On a different occasion, the woman leader in Wamena, Marta Itlay, invited all people in Papua to make the XX PON in Papua a success.
He said that the community must be enthusiastic about participating in supporting the implementation of PON 2021 in Papua. Marta said the support for PON activities in Papua should also be supported by young people in Papua as the nation’s successor. Therefore, do not let us be influenced by things that are detrimental and hinder the implementation of PON XX 2021 in Papua.
The implementation of PON in Papua will bring in many athletes from all over Indonesia. For this reason, the community must be a good host and help the implementation of PON to run well and smoothly.
The implementation of PON in Papua is not only a place to win medals. The most important thing is to become an arena for strengthening the bonds of brotherhood, the bonds of unity and solidarity between regions.
President Joko Widodo had reminded that PON in Papua is not just a sports competition. But PON is a common arena to celebrate diversity, strengthen the spirit of brotherhood and an arena to strengthen unity and integrity. So that in the midst of this pandemic, of course all parties will continue to prepare themselves as well as possible.
PON has a long history, the event was first held in 1948 under conditions of war and blockaded by the Dutch, the Indonesian government was not afraid to hold the first major National Sports Week (PON) celebration. President Ir Soekarno himself attended the opening on September 9, 1948.
At that time PON did not only organize sporting events, PON also contained a political message, where the implementation of PON was intended to show the Netherlands that Indonesia is a sovereign country. In the PON event, there will be no less than 6,442 athletes from various parts of the country who will come to Papua. This amount has not been added by officials and supporters. Of course this will make Papua even more lively with a spirit of unity.
