Maintaining Public Space

A brief news but strong enough to shock people’s heart was the convertion of the stadium in Argamakmur, the main town of North Bengkulu regency. The stadium is located 14 Km to the south of Margasakti village. The district of Argamakmur itself is directly adjacent to the Margasakti village which belong to district of Padang Jaya. The stadium which formerly called Court 45 will be converted into a town park of Argamakmur and the football field will be moved to another place. The convertion itself brings sadness among some people, because they still have a good memory of the stadium, especially the youth of North Bengkulu who love football tournaments. The football final match of the regency is always held at the stadium.

Actually, the plan of local government has reasonable background. No regional regulation breaking the upper laws becomes basis of local government to make policy. However, some people still unrelieved toward the convertion of the public space.

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017, a brief discussion about public space was held and attended by some youth of Margasakti village. Yohanes Dian Alpasa ignited the atmosphere of the discussion with the story of atmosphere changing of public space in the district. The story itself was affirmed by them and they agreed toward the observation result that some public spaces have been converted from their function.

The atmosphere of the discussion was getting lively with some ideas occured among them, such as a real condition of youth group who like drinking and doing motor race on the village streets. Unfortunately these lifestyles are done by youth having good education.

At night around 20.00 WIB at Yohanes Suherman’s house, a small group of young men began to organize themselves into a more complete structure. They agreed to intensify their discussion and meeting from once a month to twice a month. The meeting will be held on the 1st and 15th of each month. This agreement will be realized in April 2017.

Another public space issues discussed is the field renovation plan of Margasakti. The renovation project will be implemented after the land certificate is issued, as one requirement that Government is obligated to have certificate for every construction on state-owned land. If Margasakti village court is built, public spaces in Padang Jaya will be more various then.

Based on the input given, this discussion group is expected to have not only indoor discussion but also be active in public space activities. Revitalization of public space has been done by the government, but there is nothing wrong when the youth want to build their own public space. One simple thing formulated by youth is a plan to construct a table tennis court in Yohanes Suherman's house yards. What is the relationship between public space and the construction plan of table tennis arena? The youth group realized that youth energy should be spent into positive activities. Thus, besides religious activities, sports activities are held to maintain physical fitness. (YDA).