Ratas Via Teleconferencing Are Considered Prone To Communication Errors

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo and the ranks of the Advanced Indonesia Cabinet held a limited meeting (ratas) regarding the handling of the corona virus or COVID-19 in Indonesia, yesterday. There is something different about this ratas. If the ministers are usually present at the State Palace, Jakarta, this time they will conduct a teleconference.

At around 10.00 WIB, President Jokowi and his ranks of ministers, including Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto, Coordinating Minister for PMK Muhadjir Effendy, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono, and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto, and several other ministers conducted teleconferences discussed handling the spread of the virus from the City of Wuhan, China.

This teleconferencing model limit is carried out as a measure to prevent the spread of the virus. Moreover, currently the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi has tested positive for the virus. President Jokowi has also issued a recommendation to the public to study, work and worship from home.

Executive Director of Indonesia Political Review, Ujang Komarudin, assessed that long-distance meetings via teleconference were necessary during this time of the spread of a virus. However, the risk of communication errors is quite prone to occur in this meeting.

"That is the shortage of our officials. There is a lot of miscommunication and blame each other face to face. Moreover, meetings via teleconference," Ujang told VOI via text message, Tuesday, March 17.

Ujang suggested that for handling the corona virus, the government should have a standard operational procedure (SOP). So that it can minimize mistakes in attitude and miscommunication.

"Just work according to the SOP, if you have worked according to the SOP, there is nothing to blame," said Ujang.

Executive Director of Indonesia Political Opinion (IPO) Dedi Kurnia Syah also has the same view that the meeting must be held by teleconference in the emergency era of the spread of COVID-19 as it is today.

"For this kind of emergency, there is no wise choice other than to use information technology," he said.

It's just that the meeting via teleconference, said Dedi, is indeed at risk of message distortion or miscommunication if there are no further steps after the electronic meeting is held.

"Indeed (teleconferencing) has the risk of message distortion, especially if the rate only takes place without a further platform," he said, explaining that the platform in question is an hourly periodic report that must be carried out between ministers and President Jokowi in dealing with the spread of COVID-19 .

Result ratas

After the meeting was carried out, through a video that was broadcast on the Presidential Secretariat's YouTube account, Jokowi conveyed a number of directions given by his ministers. To the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian, Jokowi requested that they be able to inform regional heads to be careful in issuing policies related to handling the spread of COVID-19. The regional head, said Jokowi, should not issue policies that create panic but are effective in reducing gatherings or crowds in his region.

"For example, the Minister of Home Affairs, informs regional heads to be careful in making policies so as not to cause public panic. The policies can be right on target in order to reduce meetings so that we can reduce the impact of COVID-19," he said in the video. the.

To the Minister of Education and Culture (Mendikbud) Nadiem Makarim, Jokowi advised that the policy of studying at home or closing schools be considered. Moreover, each region has its own specialty, so this home study policy must be carefully considered.

In addition to studying at home, Jokowi also urged companies to implement work from home and worship at home with the aim of reducing public interaction in order to prevent the spread of Corona.

"This is once again to reduce movement because social distancing is very important, so we hope we can solve things related to COVID-19," he said.

For the Minister of Industry and the Minister of SMEs, Jokowi also advised that there should be no termination of employment (PHK) and for the Village Minister, he asked regional heads and village heads to be directed to do cash for work.

In this meeting, Jokowi also mentioned the pre-work card with a budget of Rp. 10 to Rp. 12 trillion. This card, he said, is expected this week to be implemented and the organizational form must already exist. To the Minister of Social Affairs, Jokowi also requested that the second phase of the Family of Hope Program (PKH) be carried out immediately.

Most importantly, Jokowi reminded the ministers to be able to withstand unnecessary budgets in the present. Among them are budgets related to official travel and meetings which are then transferred to more important matters.

"We are in an unusual situation. The most important thing is that the minister must be brave enough to withhold the budget from the existing program so that the existing budget is directed at as much as possible to help the people: farmers, laborers, teachers, entrepreneurs, micro and small workers."