RI's 76th Anniversary, Chair Of The People's Consultative Assembly Explains The Impact Of COVID-19 That Has Hit Indonesia For 2 Years
JAKARTA - Chairman of the MPR Bambang Soesatyo, invites all Indonesian people to remain grateful and welcome with joy the 76th Indonesian Independence Day even though it is still shrouded in concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, it is the duty and responsibility of all Indonesian people, to give birth to a young generation that is strong, united and optimistic so that they have the readiness to take over the relay of national leadership in order to realize the nation's ideals towards the 2045 Golden Indonesia era.
"Let's inflame the spirit to realize the Vision of Future Indonesia to become an independent, united, sovereign, just and prosperous country based on Pancasila as stated in the Preamble to the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia," said Bambang Soesatyo in a speech to the MPR Annual Session and Session Together with the DPR and DPD 2021 in the Plenary Meeting Room, Nusantara MPR/DPR/DPD Building, Monday, August 16, morning.
Although this annual session was held in a simple manner, Bambang believes that the spirit of nationalism is able to inspire the spirit of state administrators to continue to work and perform in carrying out the people's mandate in accordance with the constitutional signs that have been stipulated by the 1945 Constitution.
Moreover, in the past two years, the Indonesian nation has been tested by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a wide impact on various dimensions of social, national and state life.
"Not only human health and humanitarian issues, but more broadly the impact is felt in the dynamics and stability of ideological, political, economic, social and cultural life, even in the fields of defense and national security," he said.
The former chairman of the DPR said that all Indonesian people felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, both living in urban and rural areas. In particular, the weakening of the community's economic resilience due to declining income due to layoffs and the absence of job opportunities.
Another impact is the loss of business opportunities due to limited community economic activities, capital and investment to support the economy of small and medium entrepreneurs.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has also forced us to adapt to new habits, study and work from home, keep our distance, and get used to new ways of maintaining health which also has an impact on stretching our social cohesion," said the man who is familiarly called Bamsoet.
Likewise in the education sector, continued Bamsoet, students can no longer do face-to-face learning, but with distance learning which affects the effectiveness and teaching and learning process.
Although online distance learning also has a positive impact on the ability to adapt in the use of technology and information, according to him, the limitations of distance education support infrastructure will reduce the achievement of learning quality and student graduation which not only measures the level of intelligence but the formation of the character of students.
Not to mention if distance learning is faced with inequality in the availability of infrastructure between regions. As well as, resulting in the existing national education system has not been able to effectively become a means to realize the learning process.
"Therefore, regarding the Government's efforts through a number of policy packages in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts, we fully support it," he said.
In addition, according to Bamsoet, the reallocation of the APBN and the National Economic Recovery program (PEN) in the form of social protection programs with various schemes and channels, refocusing of the health budget, reallocation of MSME and corporate support, direct cash assistance from village funds, business incentives, and electricity tariff cuts. PLN is the right policy step to deal with the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The COVID-19 pandemic has not only undermined economic, social and cultural foundations, but has actually made us all lose friends, relatives, children, wives, husbands, parents and relatives who died due to COVID-19," he said. .
For this reason, Bamsoet appealed to all Indonesian people to continue to improve the discipline of health protocols, maintain distance, limit interactions.
"As well as vaccinating to prevent and reduce the spread, fatality rate and death rate due to COVID-19," said Bamsoet.