Guess The Government's Reasons For Not Implementing Indonesia's Lockdown Immediately

Hotel Indonesia Roundabout (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended every country with a large population to declare the corona virus outbreak a national emergency. The goal is to reduce the spread of the corona virus.

Several countries affected by COVID-19 have also taken preventive and spread measures by implementing lockdowns. However, not for Indonesia. Until now, the government has not yet determined an attitude or step towards the massive spread of the Corona virus.

Public Policy Observer, Trubus Rahadiansyah, said there are several reasons why the government has not implemented a lockdown. One of the reasons is to maintain the stability of the economy which will immediately decline when the regulation is implemented.

This will also have an impact with the emergence of free riders or people who take advantage of certain conditions to make a profit. They will deliberately hoard various basic necessities needed by the community, and will only sell them to the market when the price of goods has skyrocketed.

"But this can still be resolved by coordinating with law enforcement officials and continuing to carry out strict supervision," Trubus told VOI, Sunday, March 15.

The second consideration is related to investment. If the lockdown step is actually implemented, the government thinks it will be left behind by investors who will help the country's development in several fields.

In the future, it is feared that these two things will lead to a crisis of trust in the government. Thus, movements emerged that could overthrow the current government regime.

For this reason, the government seems to be more careful and continues to think about the steps to be taken. Because, it is not an easy matter to determine if we refer to the impact that will occur.

"The government is afraid of an economic crisis and a political crisis. Then there will be distrust of the current government," said Trubus.

Although, many parties have proposed implementing lockdowns in several areas, said Trubus, this cannot be done carelessly. There are other factors that also become a daily basis, one of which is the regional budget.

The availability of budget for each different region is feared to become a boomerang and only afflict the people of certain areas. "The consideration is quite heavy, even though the lockdown is imposed only in certain regions. From a budget side it feels heavy," said Trubus.

On the previous occasion, Deputy IV for Political Communication and Information Dissemination of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP), Jury Ardiantoro, said that the decision to implement a lockdown must be measured by the extent of its urgency. This is because there are many things that the government must count and pay attention to.

In addition, the government is very serious about dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. The government is also very prepared and has sufficient human resources (HR) to handle this outbreak.

"So with the issuance of Presidential Decree number 7 of 2020, of course, the acceleration of handling COVID-19 is to accelerate what has been done so far. So it has not been done, but has done, but of course it must be accelerated," said the jury.

Meanwhile, the Governor of DKI Jakarta, Anies Baswedan, has issued a statement regarding the appeal for the public not to do much outdoor activities. Anies also asked people to maintain more distance between residents or what is called a social distancing measure, as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Reducing encounters, avoiding physical contact, staying away from places where people gather," he said.

In addition, the community is asked to reduce or postpone outdoor activities that involve large numbers of people. In fact, Anies also prohibited his citizens from leaving the city of Jakarta. Because, it is feared that it will become an entry point for the spread of COVID-19.

"Do not let any of us return to our hometowns and unwittingly bring the virus to our hometowns or to other areas. Because Jakarta is currently one of the places where the virus has been transmitted from one person to another," said Anies.