Megawati Strengthens Jokowi To Overcome The Pandemic: A Strong Father

JAKARTA - PDI-P General Chair Megawati Soekarnoputri advised President Joko Widodo to be strong in facing the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia.

"If you haven't forgotten we talked about pandemics and vaccinations. When we met, I said, 'You are strong, it's not just us, the whole world'. We don't know how long it will take for vaccination as part of treatment and destroy this virus, " said Megawati Soekarnoputri in a video uploaded to the Cabinet Secretariat Youtube quoted by Antara, Saturday, August 28.

Megawati made this statement during President Jokowi's meeting with coalition political party leaders at the State Palace in Jakarta on August 25.

There were seven political party leaders who took part in the meeting, namely the chairman of the PDI-P Megawati Soekarnoputri, the chairman of the Golkar Party Airlangga Hartarto, the chairman of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto, the chairman of the NasDem Party Surya Paloh, the chairman of the National Awakening Party Muhaimin Iskandar, the chairman of the PPP Suharso Manoarfa and the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan.

"But the most important thing is actually a discipline from the community and brief knowledge from the community that actually this vaccine is not a drug but makes our immunity high," said Megawati.

Megawati said there are still people who question why they have been vaccinated but are still exposed to COVID-19 because they forget to maintain health protocols.

"That's very true, sir. We are right. That's why I say to support you, our path is correct," added Megawati.

The 5th Indonesian President said that one of the things that guarded Indonesia during COVID-19 was Pancasila.

"What makes us do what you said, I think, is because we have Pancasila. Pancasila in the field is mutual cooperation," said Megawati.

One of the things that Megawati praised from the Jokowi administration was the issuance of vaccine letters for those who had been vaccinated.

"Fortunately there is already a vaccination letter, it is also a part that I say is very effective. From the economic side, in my opinion, this will soon be the people's knowledge that this vaccination can play a very important role but still with progress. Although it hasn't run in full, it can be done," said Megawati.

In his presentation, President Jokowi acknowledged that the development of COVID-19 was difficult to predict.

"Regarding COVID-19, the daily development of COVID-19 cases is indeed difficult to predict, but thank God, today, August 24 yesterday (positive number) 19 thousand out of 56 thousand. This is what I think we are doing as well," said the President.

The President said he himself contacted a number of countries to modify the Indonesian version of the COVID-19 handling method.

"Regarding the occupancy of beds in hospitals, in May, we once reached 29 percent and then jumped in July to almost 80 percent. Today we have lowered it again to 30 percent, thank God. the police, ministries, state-owned enterprises, local governments are all working," said the President.

As for the recovery rate, according to the President, Indonesia's average recovery is already above the world average, which is 89.97 percent compared to the world average of 89.5 percent.

"What we haven't been able to resolve yet, I always convey this to the Minister of Health and the regional government so that this number of deaths must be kept under pressure," the President added.

As for vaccination ratings, according to the President, Indonesia's ranking is not bad out of a total of around 220 countries.

"Our rankings are not that bad. If we count the number of people who have been vaccinated, we are number 4. India is number 1, number 2 is the United States, number 3 is Brazil, we are number 4, Indonesia. Then based on the total injections, 91.9 million doses have been injected. We are not inferior to Germany, Japan, Brazil, America, China," said the President.