COVID-19 Is Increasing, Indonesia Is Advised To Lock Down And Cancel Work From Bali Program

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The number of COVID-19 cases in the country continues to increase. Even within 24 hours, there were 14,536 new cases recorded, on Monday, June 22.

In the midst of the addition of these cases, a proposal emerged for the government to immediately implement a lockdown in the DKI Jakarta area. Economists even ask that non-urgent expenditures be canceled, including the work trip budget from Bali.

Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) Bhima Yudhistira said that in the midst of this difficult situation, the government must be able to save on spending. Because, to implement the lockdown, a budget reallocation is needed.

Therefore, Bhima said all non-urgent expenses should be postponed. The main focus that the government should run is health spending and social protection.

"The government first stops all infrastructure spending, there needs to be an extreme reallocation during the lockdown period. Expenditures that are not urgent, such as spending on business trips from Bali, will be canceled immediately," he said when contacted by VOI, Monday, June 21.

Furthermore, Bhima said, with the infrastructure budget of Rp413 trillion that was saved, it could support the lockdown a lot.

"The government must listen to advice from health experts. Once the lockdown is effective, the economy will grow solidly, not as false as it is now. It's as if the level of consumer confidence has increased, but after the explosion of COVID-19 cases, there is a risk of falling again. We must not repeat it at zero," he said.

Bhima admitted that he believed that business actors would support the lockdown provided that there was adequate compensation from the government and effective supervision in the field or there was no discrimination.

"The compensation will appear if the government's budget can be reallocated immediately. There is already capital for Law Number 2 of 2020 to shift the budget quickly," he said.

Similarly, Senior Economist Faisal Basri also opposes the Work From Bali program. He assessed that the Work From Bali program launched by the government would increase people's mobility in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which at present has not even been resolved.

"Please also don't Work From Bali, Lombok, Lake Toba, now the concept is mobility. So work from home. I feel sorry for the Balinese, the tourist centers because humans have brought the virus," he said in a virtual discussion, Sunday, June 20.

The Work From Bali plan was initiated by the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment since last May. The seven institutions under the ministry, led by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, will send their civil servants or PNS to Work From Bali under the pretext of helping the economy of the Island of the Gods, which collapsed due to the pandemic.

Previously, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy had already initiated Work From Bali in early 2021. Currently, the ministry under the leadership of Sandiaga Uno continues to try to invite various sectors to implement the same thing.

Faisal said, instead of inviting people to work from tourist destinations, the government must take steps to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic with large-scale restrictions. In this case the lockdown.

Furthermore, Faisal said large-scale restrictions could be carried out for two weeks so that the increasing wave of outbreaks due to the emergence of new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 could be suppressed.

"So let's be bitter for 2 weeks, the government looks for the money in accordance with the law. This is according to the law, the law is made by experts because there are academic texts, and so on. and care. Now micro PSBB, RT, RW of all kinds," he said.