For Those Who Criticize The Prophet's Maulid Holiday, Said Vice President KH Ma'ruf: We Avoid People Who Continue To Have Holidays

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin and Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Muhadjir Effendi in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), (Photo: ANTARA/HO-Setwapres)

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin explained the government's decision to shift the Maulid Nabi holiday from Tuesday 19 October to Wednesday 20 October to anticipate a possible spike in COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.

"We are shifting it to avoid people taking advantage of the tight day, so that people continue (vacation). Therefore, we try (shift) it, even though (COVID-19 cases) are already low, but we are still anticipatory," said Vice President Ma'ruf Amin on the sidelines of his working visit in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, Sunday 17 October.

Anticipatory efforts against the potential spike in COVID-19 transmission cases, continued the Vice President, were carried out so that there was no loosening of protocols by the public when taking advantage of religious holidays like India.

"India, when it was low, then there were relaxations and even religious events, finally it went up again. We don't want that to happen again in Indonesia," he said.

Meanwhile, Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (PMK) Muhadjir Effendy said the decision to shift the holiday was to avoid people taking advantage of long holidays after the weekend.

"The only consideration is to avoid a long holiday period, because in the gap between holidays and regular holidays (Saturday and Sunday) there is a tight day, namely Monday," said Muhadjir accompanying the Vice President in Kupang.

Thus, continued Muhadjir, if the national holiday of the Prophet's Birthday is still held on Tuesday (19/10), there will be the potential for many people to take leave or play truant on Monday (18/10) in order to get a long holiday.

"If the holiday remains on Tuesday, many people will use Monday to skip or get permission, but actually the intention is to extend their holiday; and there will be a massive movement of people," he explained.

The massive mobility of people can lead to a potential increase in the transmission rate of COVID-19 cases. Therefore, the Government does not want the current decline in cases of COVID-19 transmission to actually lead to an increase in cases.

"In fact, with the downturn, we don't want to play around anymore, because we have experienced every time we go down, then we allow a long holiday without any policy intervention, it will be followed by an increase in cases," said Muhadjir.