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Acting Coordinator of Marketing for XX Papua National Sports Week Organizing Committee Karsudi (left) and Head of Division II of the committee Roy Letlora (right) at the event's theme song launching press conference on September 11, 2021. (ANTARA/Roy Rosa Bachtiar/uyu) - 

The XX Papua National Sports Week Organizing Committee (PB PON) launched an official song and video to enliven plans for the national event, which will be held in Papua from October 2-15, 2021.

"It brings a message of enthusiasm for the implementation of the National Sports Week (PON), which will be held for the first time in Papua. In the song, there is a spirit given from Papua to the event’s participants, as well as welcome for the athletes from all over the nation," Head of Division II of the committee Roy Letlora said at a press conference here on Saturday.

Before it was officially launched in Jakarta, the song -- sung by Vien Mangku and Qibah Mansawan -- had already been introduced in Papua to bring together the local community.

On the same occasion, the committee also revealed the long process of creating the song.

Before choosing it, the committee began by conducting a theme song contest in March 2021, which was registered by 24 contestants from both Papua and outside the region.

In the process, there were only 15 contestants who submitted their songs for the assessment stage.

After going through a long judging process by Papuan artists, the song by Hebat Fatahilah, entitled ‘Torang Bisa’ – literally meaning ‘We Can’ -- was chosen as the winner.

"It has a very deep meaning. Every lyric describes the spirit of Papua. Its location at the easternmost part of Indonesia making Papua the first region that welcomes the sunrise. It means that there will rise a spirit which will never run out. Through this song, we want Papua to be better known,” Acting Coordinator of Marketing for the committee Karsudi said.

The lyrics also tell about four things reflected in the spirit of the athletes in Papua -- maintaining national unity, instilling a spirit of sportsmanship, uniting differences, and unifying to become champions.

In addition, the song expresses the issue of equality, which becomes the concern of all Indonesian.

"We feel that we become one, so that Papua can rise from being left behind. We want all to be equal and free of the assumption that there is unequal welfare. All of them are described in the theme song," Roy Letlora added//ANT