JAKARTA - The apology of the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment as well as the Coordinator of the Java-Bali Emergency PPKM, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, is seen as a step to reduce public anger against the government. Due to the fact, the handling of COVID-19 is not under control.
"The community is no longer stupid, it's the people who are directly affected by the impact, they know exactly what the field is like. This handling is considered chaotic, not good, even a lot of busyness here and there. Now this is what makes Luhut say 'come here I will Show it to his face, it will trigger anger from the people," said Ujang Komaruddin, a political observer from Al Azhar University Indonesia to VOI, Monday, July 19.
According to Ujang, the apology was the result of Luhut's boast that the handling of COVID-19 was very controlled. Thus, causing public outrage.
"At the end of it all, Luhut apologized yesterday, it was part of the process so that people would not be too angry with the government. Now people are having a hard time, it's difficult, finding food is difficult, many can't eat. If the communication displayed by the government is arrogance, Arrogance when it doesn't match reality will certainly make people angry," explained the Executive Director of the Indonesia Political Review.
Therefore, the government through Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan then apologized in order to reduce the anger of the people who were helter-skelter.
"Pak Luhut knows exactly that in order to relieve the people's anger and hatred for the government, it is a positive thing if the government, where Pak Luhut is also the head of the Java-Bali COVID-19 handling, apologizes," continued Ujang.
Not only Luhut, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy who is also the Chairman of the KCP-PEN Committee, Airlangga Hartarto, was also reprimanded by President Jokowi, because of poor communication to the public.
"People are in trouble, they can't eat, it's hard to earn money. Public communication or mass communication built by Luhut or any official should be cool, which makes the atmosphere cool, it should be like that," said Ujang.
Ujang suggested that when there is strong criticism from observers, the people's academics or the opposition should respond with a smile and good work so that the atmosphere does not get hotter.
"It should be like that. In fact, if the government is good, the people will also take their hats off, if the performance is good, everyone is also respectful," he said.
Previously, Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan had said that the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia could be controlled.
Luhut dismissed various assumptions that stated that the pandemic condition in the country was out of control.
"So if someone says that the situation is out of control, it is very, very under control. So those who talk about it being out of control can come to me. Later I will show them that we are under control," Luhut said at an online press conference on Monday, July 12.
A few days later, Saturday, July 17, Luhut apologized for the non-optimal emergency PPKM.
"As the coordinator of the Java Bali Emergency PPKM from the bottom of my heart, I apologize to all Indonesian people if it is still not optimal. But I along with the ranks and with the relevant ministers will continue to work hard to ensure that the spread of the delta variant can be reduced," said Luhut.
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