Prabowo To Jokowi: Ignore The Voices That Make Things Worse, We Are Already On The Right Path

President Jokowi listens to Prabowo Subianto's statement during a meeting of coalition political party leaders at the Palace (Presidential Secretariat Youtube)

JAKARTA - General Chairperson of the Gerindra Party Prabowo Subianto asked President Jokowi not to pay attention to voices that were considered to be clouding the situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The handling of (COVID-19) is quite effective and we are optimistic that we are able to deal with it and we have to face it. So we think that the voices who want to aggravate the situation should not be ignored, we are already on the right path," Prabowo Subianto said as in the video uploaded on the Presidential Secretariat's Youtube channel, quoted by Antara, Saturday, August 28.

Prabowo said this during President Jokowi's meeting with coalition political party leaders at the State Palace in Jakarta on August 25, 2021.

There were seven political party leaders who took part in the meeting, namely PDI-P chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri, Golkar Party chairman Airlangga Hartarto, Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto, NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party chairman Muhaimin Iskandar, PPP chairman Suharso Manoarfa and the National Mandate Party chairman (PAN) Zulkifli Hasan.

"Mr. Jokowi's leadership is effective, sir. I admit that and I respect you, I see, I am a witness, I am in the cabinet," said Prabowo.

The defense minister said President Jokowi's leadership and decisions were suitable for the Indonesian people.

"I think our team is good, our team in the cabinet is quite compact and we are working well. So, please don't hesitate, 'we are on the right track'," added Prabowo.

A number of problems to overcome the pandemic, such as delays in vaccination, according to Prabowo, are also experienced by many countries.

"Secondly, we are optimistic that the economy is quite good compared to many other countries. It is also related to your decision not to hard 'lock down', allowing us to be safe," Prabowo said.

This means that Prabowo believes that the President's decisions regarding the pandemic need to be continued.

"So we can be proud that our achievements are good, I am proud to be part of this government and we don't have to hesitate, sir," added Prabowo.

In his presentation, President Jokowi acknowledged that the development of COVID-19 was difficult to predict.

"Regarding COVID-19, the daily development of COVID-19 cases is indeed difficult to predict, but thank God, today, August 24 yesterday (positive number) 19 thousand out of 56 thousand. This is what I think we are doing as well," said the President.

The President said he himself contacted a number of countries to modify the Indonesian version of the COVID-19 handling method.

"Regarding the occupancy of beds in hospitals, in May, we once reached 29 percent and then jumped in July to almost 80 percent. Today we have lowered it again to 30 percent, thank God. The police, ministries, state-owned enterprises, local governments are all working," said the President.

As for the recovery rate, according to the President, Indonesia's average recovery is already above the world average, which is 89.97 percent compared to the world average of 89.5 percent.

"What we haven't been able to resolve yet, I always convey this to the Minister of Health and the regional government so that this number of deaths must be kept under pressure," the President added.

As for vaccination ratings, according to the President, Indonesia's ranking is not bad out of a total of around 220 countries.

"Our rankings are not that bad. If we count the number of people who have been vaccinated, we are number 4. India is number 1, number 2 is the United States, number 3 is Brazil, we are number 4, Indonesia. Then based on the total injections, 91.9 million doses have been injected. We are not inferior to Germany, Japan, Brazil, America, China," said the President.

Furthermore, related to economic conditions, the President again explained the gas and brake strategy.

"Because if the case goes down, the economy will definitely go up, if the case goes up, the economy will definitely go down, that's the formula. We're looking for equilibrium, looking for balance, that's actually the most difficult thing to adjust to the field in Indonesia, which is also not easy because it has islands and for distribution of vaccines alone, distribution of medicines alone takes a lot of time," explained the President.