PCR Test Becomes Mandatory Requirement To Board A Plane, Indonesian Ombudsman: This Policy Is Discriminatory

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - RI Ombudsman member Robert Na Endi Jaweng views the government's policy regarding the PCR test as a mandatory requirement for prospective airline passengers with the potential to be double discriminatory. This means that there is discrimination from a financial perspective as well as from a health perspective.

"I must say that this policy is discriminatory. We even call it double discrimination," Robert said in an online discussion, Saturday, October 30.

He then said, from a financial perspective, the mandatory PCR test policy for domestic travelers was considered discriminatory because it gave the impression that only prospective airplane passengers could afford to pay more for a PCR test.

Meanwhile, long-distance travelers using other modes of transportation such as private vehicles or trains are considered unable to pay more for the PCR test.

"Financial discrimination against those who can afford it, because those who board the plane are considered to be a group that can afford to pay, so they are financially given more burdens than those on land transportation such as cars or trains," said Robert.

"So there is financial discrimination against those we think can afford, who get on the plane," he added.

In addition, the mandatory PCR test policy is also considered to be discriminatory from a health perspective. Robert said, the regulation seems to distinguish the priority of public safety and health between those who are economically capable and those who are less well off.

That assumption, said Robert, departed from the statement which stated that the COVID-19 test using the PCR method was better at detecting the virus than the antigen test.

"Because the assumption made is that this difference makes it seem as if those (traveling, ed) by car and train may use antigens, getting a higher risk of transmission than (passengers, ed) planes," he said.

"It's as if, because you use a cheaper mode of transportation, the risk is that you can infect each other, because only an antigen test is applied," added Robert.

For information, the government through the Instruction of the Minister of Home Affairs (Inmendagri) Number 53 of 2021 concerning the Enforcement of Restrictions on Community Activities (PPKM) Levels 3, 2, and 1 in the Java-Bali region, requires domestic long-distance travelers using air transportation modes to include negative results. PCR test before departure.

The policy was then criticized because it was considered burdensome. Soon, the government responded to this by lowering the price of the PCR test to IDR 275,000 for the Java-Bali area and IDR 300 thousand for outside Java-Bali.