Sports stadium becomes market

Sports stadium becomes market

From Media Indonesia

I feel called upon to talk about this matter in public because
the condition of the area outside the main stadium of the 'Bung'
Karno sports complex has now become the cause of increasing
concern. On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in particular,
the place changes into a market, rather than a place for physical
exercise. You can find practically everything there: garments,
food and drink, footwear, crockery, pirated CDs and VCDs,
aquarium fish, vegetables, carpentry tools and even rat poison.
Entertainment abounds, including, for example, performing
monkeys.

You cannot go jogging or roller-skating as there is hardly any
room left even for walking. Everywhere you are surrounding by
vendors. In a situation like this, sports fans can only leave the
place in abject disappointment.

Ironically, a notice board proudly warns that it is prohibited
to sell anything in this area. Vendors simply ignore this and the
stadium management may have forgotten about it.

To ensure that this area may be used again for sporting
activities, some of the vendors must be moved away. Perhaps they
could be allowed to sell their wares along the passage leading to
the entrance to the stadium. Also, efforts must be made to ensure
that only vendors selling food and drink will be allowed to do
business in this area.

The sports stadium management could first try to persuade the
vendors to move on but if persuasion does not work, they should
call in bulldozers or even armored vehicles to ensure that the
vendors leave the place. This will show seriousness on the part
of the management.

Will the vendors refuse to move and fight back? Certainly not
because the management has approached them sympathetically to
tell them why they must move to another place. The vendors must
be made to understand that they enjoy the right to earn money but
at the same time are obligated to respect other people's rights.

Unless serious efforts are made to tackle this matter, it will
not be long before we witness this sports stadium being
completely destroyed. Then there will be nowhere left for Jakarta
people to play sports.

N. HIDAYAT

Jakarta