PCR Results Become A Requirement For Airplane Passengers, Mahfud MD: Not At Will, But An Order From A Cabinet Meeting

ILLUSTRATION/SOEKARNO-HATTA AIRPORT/ANTARA

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD said that the rules for PCR test results as a travel requirement for passengers on the Java-Bali route were not made at the discretion of the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian alone.

This was conveyed by Mahfud in response to the lawsuit by Jokowi Mania (Joman) volunteers who were submitted to the State Administrative Court (PTUN). The submission was made, they considered this requirement to be contrary to the 1945 Constitution Article 23 Paragraph A where the rules regarding taxes and levies must be regulated in a law, not a ministerial instruction.

"The Minister of Home Affairs made it (Inmendagri) not arbitrarily but on the orders of a cabinet meeting," Mahfud told reporters quoted on Wednesday, October 27.

He said the instructions issued by Tito had been discussed in a cabinet meeting with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and his staff. After all, this policy was taken solely to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

"The Minister of Home Affairs was released based on the decision of the cabinet meeting to keep the COVID-19 downturn maintained," said Mahfud.

Previously reported, the class action lawsuit related to the Ministry of Home Affairs Number 53 of 2021 concerning the Implementation of Level 3, Level 2, and Level 1 Corona Virus Disease 2019 Restrictions in the Java and Bali Regions.

"Our lawsuit has been received by the Jakarta Administrative Court with registration number 241/G/2021 Jakarta Administrative Court," said JoMAN Chairman Immanuel Ebenezer at the Jakarta Administrative Court, quoted by Antara, Tuesday, October 26.

Meanwhile, the plaintiff's attorney, Bambang Sri Pujo, explained that to register a lawsuit in the Administrative Court, two elements were needed. First, whether the instruction contradicts the law and secondly, there is an untrue allegation.

Bambang explained in the opening section of the Ministry of Home Affairs that there is no legal basis at all, for example the 1945 Constitution or the laws relating to the issuance of these instructions.

"This is the third instruction, previously there were numbers 36, 45 and currently 53," said Bambang.