Measuring The Effectiveness Of The Policy For Bekasi Residents Prohibited From Going To Jakarta

Activities of KRL service users (Mulia Megantari / VOI)

JAKARTA - West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil coordinates with the regents and mayors of Bekasi to limit the movement of its citizens to and from Jakarta. This step was taken to prevent the corona virus pandemic or COVID-19.

Urban planning observer Nirwono Yoga doubts this policy. He is not sure that this policy is effective in preventing Bekasi residents from coming to Jakarta. This is because there are still offices that do not use the work from home system and have kept a number of Bekasi residents moving to Jakarta.

"This policy will not be effective without the support of other policies. For example, workers who can work from home must be supported from the office to allow them to work from home," Nirwono told VOI via text message, Thursday, March 19.

Not only that, for physical workers such as security guards, cleaning service, medical officers and factory workers, the work from home policy cannot be implemented, especially without certainty of salary and intensive.

According to him, instead of imposing restrictions on citizens who want to travel to Jakarta, the West Java Regional Government should start conducting strict screening of those traveling citizens.

"What can be done is strict screening in and out of West Java to Jakarta, such as at terminals, train stations and bus stops," he said.

Public policy observer from Trisakti University, Trubus Rahadiansyah, assessed that restrictions on traveling from one region to another would not be effective in preventing COVID-19. The public, said Trubus, must first be made aware of the importance of social distancing in dealing with the virus.

"Only a policy of public participation or broad public participation will slow down the spread of COVID-19," he stressed.

Trubus considered that the policy for Bekasi residents to not come to Jakarta would be difficult to implement. Because, based on his estimates, nearly 60 percent of Bekasi residents work in Jakarta.

Trubus suggested that the appeal should be replaced by checks carried out by the Bekasi City / Regency Health Office on its citizens after traveling to Jakarta.

"The policies needed are massive testing of COVID-19 for the community and tightening supervision at airports, stations, terminals or ports," he said.

From the economic sector, a researcher at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), Bhima Yudhistira, assessed that when this policy is implemented, company productivity will decrease. Moreover, when this restriction was also implemented by other Jakarta buffer cities, such as Bogor, Depok, South Tangerang and Tangerang.

"In Jabodetabek, the number of employees is recorded at 7,359,192 and the number of companies is 1,214,420 units. You can imagine the obstacles for workers commuting every day from Bekasi to Jakarta if it drops sharply, national productivity will drop," said Bhima.