Megawati Reminds Jokowi That Head Of State Must Hold Command During Emergency
JAKARTA - PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri reminded President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to take direct command of disaster management. This must be done because disaster is an extraordinary event and requires extra handling.
"I said to Mr. President, 'It is the Head of State of the Republic of Indonesia who must directly (hold the command, ed). Because this is an extraordinary problem,'" Megawati said while giving a speech in a virtual program broadcast on PDI Perjuangan YouTube, Wednesday, 4 August.
Megawati made this statement when she asked who was in command when a disaster occurred in the country, especially when the emergency response status was enforced.
According to him, command is a weakness that always occurs when handling disasters. He gave an example, this has happened during the liquefaction disaster or the movement of the ground surface in Palu City, Central Sulawesi some time ago.
When the disaster occurred, Megawati once asked who was in command to carry out the disaster management strategy. However, there is no answer to that question.
"When it happened, no, no, no, there was paralysis like in Palu. I went in and asked who was in command there, no one could answer," he said.
This statement, said Megawati, was not because she wanted to be thought of as knowing. Instead, he wanted to remind people that there are still weaknesses in the midst of a disaster.
This incident was also repeated in the handling of COVID-19. According to him, the government has created a special task force to deal with this pandemic problem in Indonesia.
However, the facts on the ground are that Megawati sees that the work of the task force team is being interfered with by certain parties. "Please think about it. I want to talk to Pak Jokowi, who should be in command," said the 5th President of the Republic of Indonesia.
"Right now, the pandemic task force (already, ed) exists. It should have been like that. But what I saw in the field, everything can be said to be an estimate," he concluded.