The New Normal, Are Business Actors Ready?

Illustration. (Angga Nugraha / VOI)

JAKARTA - Yesterday, Tuesday 26 May, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) visited a number of locations to review the readiness of health protocols to signal the implementation of The New Normal. The symbolization of Jokowi was carried out by visiting the Bundaran HI Jakarta MRT Station, and Summarecon Mall in the city of Bekasi.

Not all parties agree on this phase of The New Normal. The reason is that this step is considered to have a big risk where positive cases of COVID-19 will continue to increase, even in a number that may be bigger.

However, Jokowi emphasized that to get to The New Normal, the government will refer to data in the field. This means that not all regions can apply this, because areas with the status of the red zone can only apply The New Normal after recording low transmission rates.

Jokowi seems impatient to recover the country's economy, which only grew 2.97 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "We must remain productive, but still safe from COVID-19," Jokowi said yesterday.

The government has developed a new health protocol for normalcy by issuing the Minister of Health Decree No. hk.01.07 / menkes / 328/2020 concerning Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Office and Industrial Workplaces in Support of Business Continuity in Pandemic Situations.

So how is the readiness of the business world to face this new phase? In the transportation sector, the chairman of the DPP Organda, Adrianto Djokosoetono, said that he had prepared a strategy.

According to him, land transportation entrepreneurs, both goods and passengers, must immediately make preparations for The New Normal by making a number of innovations.

What form it looks like, we still have to wait for further developments. This is because business actors are still in the stage of restoring their business, especially in the tourism and intercity transportation sector.

Deputy Chairperson of the Indonesian Employers' Association (Apindo) Shinta W. Kamdani sees that it is too early to see when economic recovery can occur if The New Normal is implemented in the midst of a pandemic like this. In line with Adrianto, Shinta said, business actors need time to study, prepare, educate workers regarding the new protocol.

"It also requires flexibility to apply it according to activities in the workplace," said Shinta.

Optimism of the Minister of Industry and the Minister of BUMN

On the other hand, Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita is optimistic and believes that the national manufacturing industry can recover more quickly if the New Normal phase is implemented.

BUMN Minister Erick Thohir is also ready if state-owned companies must implement the protocol in the framework of The New Normal. According to Erick, as many as 86 percent of SOEs are considered ready to implement the The New Normal protocol.

Not quite right

Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) researcher Bhima Yudhistira assessed that all The New Normal protocols must be accompanied by close supervision from the Health Office as the key to successful implementation. He even considered, the Health Office needs to carry out random checks to a number of checks to ensure this protocol is carried out by all companies without exception.

"It is important to carry out random checks or some kind of inspection so that sanctions or corrective measures are immediately carried out to the company owners to be orderly. There should be no discrimination, one is orderly but many other offices do not comply," said Bhima.

He also said it was possible that some workplaces were unable to provide adequate health protocols. For example, providing hand sanitizers and masks.

"For medium and large companies, there may not be a problem, but for MSMEs there will definitely be additional costs," said Bhima.

So, at times like this, the government should provide assistance to MSME entrepreneurs to ensure the availability of masks. In addition, the government must also carry out the socialization of safe health protocols from now on.

However, Bhima is skeptical about this protocol. Because in addition to assessing that the Ministry of Health was not yet fully prepared for the protocol for The New Normal they had just issued, he also considered the reasons for economic recovery in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"(The reason for the economic recovery) is not yet right, as long as the readiness of the health protocol is not 100 percent," he said.

Will increase the number of deaths

Meanwhile, in a policy study released by Indef, the easing of large-scale social restrictions (PSBB), including the implementation of the The New Normal protocol, is predicted to increase the number of deaths from COVID-19 by up to 61 percent compared to the current one.

On Tuesday 26 May, there were an additional 415 positive cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, bringing the total to 23,165 cases. Since May 12, the additional daily cases have always been above 400 and had reached 973 on May 21.

DKI Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that his party also made a special protocol for the DKI Jakarta area. According to the former Minister of Education and Culture, this is in order to accommodate the different character of DKI from other regions.

The Association of the Indonesian Shopping Centers (APPBI) DKI Jakarta stated that it is ready to resume operations by implementing The New Normal protocol. The shopping center management targets the number of visits to reach 30-40 percent.