Anies Spokesperson Accuses JIS Of Political-Smelling Renovation, Heru Budi Answers This

Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono accompanied by the Chairman of the DKI DPRD Prasetyo Edi after the FGD at the Borobudur Hotel, Central Jakarta, Thursday, July 6. (Diah-VOI)

JAKARTA - Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono responded to accusations by a spokesman for the presidential candidate Anies Baswedan who considered the plan to improve the Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) by the central government and the DKI Provincial Government to have a political nuance.

According to Heru, the government only intends to make JIS a suitable place as a match venue, especially the U-17 World Cup which will be held in November.

"Yes, we want to give our best. That's all. The Minister of PUPR (during the JIS review some time ago) has already conveyed it," said Heru at the Ministry of State Secretariat, Central Jakarta, Thursday, July 6.

Heru explained that the improvement of the JIS area was carried out jointly by the central and regional governments. The work is targeted to be completed in the next 3 months.

The DKI Provincial Government is tasked with building road access from the east side of JIS which is connected to off-ramp toll roads, construction of pedestrian bridges (JPO) from KRL stations to JIS, as well as additional parking space.

Then, the central government is tasked with building JIS Commuter Line KRL stations, construction of JPOs from the Ancol area to JIS, and access to off-ramp toll roads located close to the stadium in Tanjung Priok.

From this improvement, Heru hopes that JIS can later be designated as a viable international match venue by FIFA as the parent organization of world football.

"Hopefully JIS is included in the FIFA (standard). Therefore, we are both perfect perfect. JIS is good, really. We just need to perfect it so that it can be used by FIFA next," explained Heru.

Previously, a spokesman for the presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, Surya Tjandra, accused a number of President Joko Widodo's ministers of JIS of political origin.

According to Surya, the arrival of PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono and SOE Minister Erick Thohir reviewed JIS and immediately set a renovation plan more like part of a politicization plan than for the implementation of the U-17 World Cup host.

This, said Surya, can be seen from the results of the government inspection which further highlighted the grass repair plan by inviting a grass contractor to the stadium in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

"In fact, suddenly someone became a grass expert just to show the shortcomings of JIS. Obviously this is only intended for politicization of presidential candidate Anies Baswedan," Surya said in his statement, Wednesday, July 5.

According to this former PSI politician, it should be the one who can judge whether it is feasible or not is FIFA. Instead, it is considered unethical when someone who has a business interest is asked to provide an evaluation.

What is clear is that it has business interests. So what are the results of the evaluation can be trusted? Methodically, how can grass be sampled, which is outside the match line? " he said.