COVID-19 Enemy Together, Ahmad Basarah Asks Political Elites To Kill Egos Stop The Fuss

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairperson of the MPR Ahmad Basarah invites all levels of society, especially from among political figures and actors to unite in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He appealed to all elements of the nation to support the policy of implementing restrictions on community activities (PPKM) whose validity period was extended until July 25, 2021.

"The spirit of sacrifice for Eid al-Adha should be used as a momentum and impetus for spirituality and nationality that the attitude of sacrifice, one of which can be manifested in the attitude of killing the ego and political interests of personal and group for the sake of the greater community and nation," said Ahmad Basarah as quoted by Antara, Wednesday, July 21.

Democracy does accommodate differences of opinion and critical attitudes in politics. However, when the nation faces a common enemy such as COVID-19, every political figure and actor, regardless of background, must show statesmanship.

According to him, the attitude of statesmanship is like maintaining cohesiveness to find joint solutions to overcome the pandemic rather than capitalizing on politics for personal and group interests.

"We should be able to take good things from political practice in New Zealand where there are also opposition forces from elements of society and political parties. But when facing a pandemic, the government as well as opposition forces and parties are united in looking for a common solution," he said.

The chairman of the PDI-P faction of the MPR said his invitation was not only addressed to political elites outside the government, but also to parties involved in central and regional government to be more cohesive in carrying out their government functions.

Basarah considered it ironic if people in the government were not united in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, including in the delivery of public communications.

"Local governments should also stick to the policies of the central government, starting from consistently implementing PPKM to socializing vaccinations and distributing government social assistance," he said.

According to him, the central government's policy will not be effective if the policy is not carried out by the lower apparatus to the regional level and it will be dangerous for the safety of the people and the resilience of the state.

For this reason, he asked local government officials and community elites to calm and direct residents to obey and be disciplined during PPKM.

"On the other hand, public officials must be able to socialize and implement the central government's social assistance policies in eight programs to deal with socio-economic excesses due to the COVID-19 pandemic properly and correctly," he said.