The Inconsistency Of Regulations Judged By Komnas HAM Is The Reason People Ignore The COVID-19 Pandemic

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JAKARTA - Chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas) Ahmad Taufan Damanik said that the community actually adheres to health protocols as recommended by the government in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this obedience has waned after the government demonstrated inconsistency in making regulations in the face of this pandemic.

"In fact, we should give our people our appreciation because they comply with (health protocols, red). For example, not to go to places of worship either to mosques, churches, monasteries, and all. Though this is sensitive for religious Indonesians," said Taufan in a press conference broadcast online on Komnas HAM's YouTube Humas account, Tuesday, July 28.

"This means that compliance is good enough but compliance that is good enough is not supported by consistency of policy," he added.

The inconsistencies he meant were related to the opening of airports, relaxation and the transition to Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB). This is what makes people disobedient to government recommendations to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are starting to see that many people have even begun to not care about the dangers if they are in a crowd or do not use masks and other medical equipment. Whereas previously it was very good," he said.

Previously, Komnas HAM Chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said that the handling of COVID-19 carried out by the government of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) seemed to be oriented towards the economic sector.

This has been seen since the COVID-19 pandemic occurred in the world but has not yet entered Indonesia. He said, when many countries formulated related policies to prevent the entry of COVID-19, Indonesia did not do it.

According to him, at that time the government actually took the opposite policy by taking an economic and tourism approach.

The same thing happened when the government implemented Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB). In order to keep the economy moving, the government has even issued several regulations such as the Circular of the Ministry of Industry (Kemenperin) Number 7 of 2020 concerning applications for industrial activity permits in times of health emergencies and various other regulations that tend to support the movement of the economy.