Ignorant Regional Authorities Endanger Their Own Constituents

Editorial Omong-Omong

1 min read

In the midst of Indonesia’s struggle to limit the spreading of Covid-19 virus, East Nusa Tenggara governor together with his regents and mayors held a party attended by hundreds of people, most of them not wearing mask and violating the pandemic regulation in the process.

A video from the event, which initially appeared on Twitter over the weekend, showed hundreds of people gathered while enjoying a live musical performance. The festivities took place right by the sea, in Semau Island, the hometown of Governor Viktor Laiskodat.
Many people quickly raised concerns that such ignorant behavior again shows how officials just don’t care what happened to the people who have voted them to office and whom they have sworn to serve, as more than 100,000 Indonesians have died from the virus and millions others have been infected since the beginning of the pandemic.
“They care only about themselves,” one netizen said. Another expressed his sadness, saying,” humanity just dies.”
This disobedience coupled with very unprepared health care system and low vaccination rate will become a time bomb waiting to explode in many areas across Indonesia sooner than later.
To date, some 34.85 million people in Indonesia have received two shots of vaccines, while 61.65 million have taken the first doses, according to the government. However, most of the vaccinated people live in Java.

Indonesia is targeting to vaccinate 208.2 million people across the country.

The number of Covid-19 cases in Indonesia stand close to 4,100,000, with the death toll now reach 131,923, said the government over the weekend.

The beach party  also shows that many, if not most, of the policies made by Jakarta are just plainly ignored by regional authorities, partly explaining the worsening condition of the regions outside Java, raising concerns that Indonesia is still far from being able to control the spread of the virus.
Several weeks ago, netizens heavily criticized East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawangsa for holding a big gathering celebrating her birthday. There have been many others regional leaders from governors, mayors and regents down to district heads that just ignored the restriction and held gathering and parties.
Media have warned that while Indonesia is currently seeing several signs of progress in reducing the infection rate and fatalities related to COVID-19 in densely populated cities in Java and Bali, there have been worrying indicators that the pandemic is increasingly penetrating areas outside Java and Bali.
Mainstream and social media have disseminated reports about surges in many areas, including in several indigenous  communities, suffering or dying from COVID-19 in remote regions of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
Editorial Omong-Omong

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