Faisal Basri: Jokowi Announces a New Team to Handle COVID-19 Every Sunday, But The Member Remains the Same

Ekonom senior Indef, Faisal Basri. (Foto: Kemenkominfo)

JAKARTA - Senior economist, Faisal Basri, has criticized the way President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) handled the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, Jokowi doesn't have a breakthrough or shortcut in dealing with this virus. He is more focused on dealing with economic or financial sector issues.

He considered that since there's no breakthrough, Jokowi always create a new team. He said that Jokowi doesn't have a commander in charge of this pandemic.

"So, every week Mr. Jokowi publishes, announces a new team. There is a vaccine acceleration team, there is a team to handle eight provinces with high cases. The team is the only team. The same people. Nobody works full time to deal with this virus. Nobody works full time, it doesn't exist," said Faisal in an online discussion broadcast on YouTube, Monday, September 21.

Several times, Jokowi formed teams related to COVID-19 handling. First, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government formed a Task Force for the Acceleration of COVID-19 handling, which was commanded by the Head of the BNPB, Doni Monardo.

Furthermore, in the middle of the pandemic period, this team was merged with the Committee for Handling COVID-19 and National Economic Recovery (KPC PEN), chaired by the Coordinating Minister (Menko) for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, and BUMN Minister, Erick Thohir, as daily chairman.

Then last week, Jokowi appointed Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, to handle the pandemic in several provinces, which becomes the government's priority. Not to mention, KPC PEN has also created a Vaccine Handling Acceleration Team, which will be responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Indonesia.

Seeing the changing teams, Faisal then asked President Jokowi to immediately appoint a warlord against COVID-19, who will be working full time, instead of creating a new team all the time.

"Now, maybe, his heart will be moved. Come on, this virus is dangerous. The warlord must be full time. Not a part-time worker," he said.

He considered that it should not be difficult to choose a commander in the face of this pandemic. Even if the former governor of DKI Jakarta has to appoint one person, he advised, whoever is in charge must at least imitate Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, who commanded the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency during the 2006 Aceh tsunami.

"Maybe not Mr. Kuntoro, but their qualifications are like Mr. Kuntoro. He was working full time, 24 hours. Probably only sleeps for 2 hours. His work was praised internationally. We are the most successful in handling it. So we have the experience," he said.

Meanwhile, the ministers in the Onward Indonesia Cabinet will be able to continue working as usual according to their main duties and functions, if needed, they are ready to help. "We need a full-time warlord," he said.

Indonesia's COVID-19 Test Numbers Are Small

Not only criticizing President Jokowi's steps, which often change teams, Faisal also highlighted the number of COVID-19 specimen tests in Indonesia. He said the number of tests in Indonesia is currently still inferior to other countries. It's even lower than some countries that have lower per capita income. One of them is in Nepal.

"Nepal's income is only a quarter of us, but the test can reach 30,932 per one million population. Meanwhile, we are only 10,527 even though we are an upper-middle-income country. This is ironic. There is no reason we lose because we are richer," he said still in the same discussion event.

Faisal also said that the number of tests in Indonesia is still inferior to several other countries, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Bolivia, all of which were low to middle-income countries. He explained that, currently, Pakistan has recorded 14,095 COVID-19 tests per one million population. While Bangladesh with 10,695, Ghana with 14,958, and Bolivia with 24,366 tests.

"This is ironic, in my opinion. So, there is no reason. There is no reason why our testing is low," he concluded.