The Death Of Parliament's Empathy: Find Safe Amid Dead Citizens, Waste Of Money In The Middle Of Economic Crisis

The Indonesian Parliament Building (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - The plan to provide COVID-19 isolation facilities (isoman) in hotels for members of the DPR has drawn protests. Because in the midst of a society that is also in a precarious situation like this, officials who are very capable of taking care of themselves seem to have lost empathy. This is also considered a waste of limited state money. Even the country has to go into debt to cover the costs of handling the pandemic.

Investigate a calibaration, the idea to provide facilities to stay in five-star hotels emerged when there was a protest from the neighbors of the DPR's official residence in Kalibata, South Jakarta. So far, DPR members already have official housing facilities that can be used as isoman places.

However, according to the Secretary General of the DPR RI, Indra Iskandar, his neighbors complained when the official house was used as a place of isolation. Because the small children in the neighborhood did not dare to play outside for fear of being infected.

In addition, the high activity of DPR members in their activities in the electoral district also has the potential to be infected with COVID-19. So that the secretariat general of the DPR prepares various possibilities to anticipate this.

Regarding the budget, Indra did not explain in detail. But he said the policy uses a contingency budget.

"This is right now in every ministry agency there is something called the actual Covid-19 handling budget, but it is a contingency because this has never been budgeted before so we will of course look for revisions from overseas official trips that are definitely not used, from the honorarium. sources that are almost certainly not used," said Indra as quoted by Republika.

There are a number of hotels used for isoman, namely the Oasis Amir Hotel around Atrium Senen, and the Ibis Latumenten Hotel, Grogol. How much it costs? According to information circulating, residents who want to isoman at the Oasis Amir Hotel can take a package for seven nights at a rate of Rp. 4.5 million.

Illustration of isoman (Source: Unsplash)

In the middle of a crisis

The facilities obtained by members of the DPR are inversely proportional to those experienced by the community. Not a few people with COVID-19 died during isoman.

Early last month, for example, the story of a COVID-19 patient who died during isoman until his body was said to have decomposed went viral on TikTok. A TikTok user said the patient was a neighbor.

According to his statement, local residents only realized that their neighbor had died after two days. The incident was known when there was a foul smell from the house of the patient who underwent the isoman.

"2 days died of corona and isoman. But no one realized after two days. The body already stinks," wrote a TikTok user.

Not long after, the same thing happened again. This incident happened to a resident from Tangerang named Sutadbi. This 51-year-old man was found dead in a shophouse in Kulon Progo in early July.

As quoted by Kumparan, before being found dead, the deceased was self-isolating after being tested positive for COVID-19. The victim's body was first discovered by his neighbor, Abdul Hadi.

The two people who died during isomanism are just a few of the thousands of similar cases that have occurred. According to LaporCovid data, as of July 29, there have been 2707 COVID-19 isoman patients who have died.

Illustration (Source: Antara)

Wasting people's money

Therefore, a political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia, Ujang Komarudin, assessed the isoman facility for members of the DPR, staff, and the State Civil Apparatus (ASN) in the midst of the community's situation which is also experiencing difficulties so that it hurts the people. According to him, they should not ask for privilege.

"This certainly hurts the people. They are fed three times a day, and other facilities. At the same time, many people die during isomanism," Ujang told VOI.

The loss of empathy, according to Ujang, may be because they are officials who fall into the category of not wanting to serve. "But want to be served and privileged."

Ujang said that state money should not be used for the interests of groups or groups. "It's okay to want to use state money. The people need it much more."

According to Ujang, it would be better if the budget for the facilities for people's representatives was used to help people who are undergoing isomanism due to exposure to COVID-19. "Because many cases of people who are isoman died."

As is known, in order to meet the budget needs for handling the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has increased its foreign debt to hundreds of millions of US dollars. To date, the total budget for handling COVID-19 and national economic recovery (PEN) has reached Rp744.75 trillion.

This increase in debt has even drawn criticism. Because as explained by Economist Bhima Yudhistira, there are still budget posts that can be relocated to deal with COVID-19. One of them is cutting official travel, allowances, and salaries of government officials.

Executive Director of Indonesia Political Review (IPR) Ujang Komarudin said that the community should be the priority at this time. "The people must come first. Many people can't eat, that's why many die during isoman."

Ujang said not to let people's money be used and enjoyed by only a handful of people. "Don't just because there are complaints from members of the DPR, then the Secretary General of the DPR rushes to facilitate it," he concluded.

*Read other information about COVID-19 or other interesting articles from Ramdan Febrian Arifin.

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