Jakarta – Presidential Chief of Staff (KSP) Moeldoko stated that the pandemic situation might bring out the extraordinary potential of the Indonesian people. The COVID-19 pandemic situation, he said, has triggered the reevaluation of the education and the health system, and the infrastructure development.
Moeldoko further mentioned Indonesia's positivity rate, which has fallen to 6.97 percent this week. The figure decreased dramatically from that of July-August which was above 15%. Meaning, Indonesia will soon reach the WHO 5% limit, which indicates the pandemic situation is under control.
"This pandemic is forcing us to leave the old, slow and inefficient way towards a new, technology-based way of working," said Moeldoko.
For example, Moeldoko continued, the pandemic situation has pushed the government to provide daily updates on the public health situation. In the pre-pandemic situation, such data was only available in a yearly update.
“We are capable of doing things that were deemed impossible. It shows that the crisis conditions can pull out extraordinary things inside ourselves,” said Moeldoko.
According to the former TNI general, challenges in the global situation create a world that is rapidly changing, a world full of risks, a world with complex situations, and a world full of surprises.
"We never imagined the work from home concept, but now it has become a normal thing," continued Moeldoko.
COVID-19 is indeed making major changes in multiple sectors and all countries are stuttering about it, however, the Indonesian government has always been prepared to face the public health conundrum with 3 major policies.
The health approach is the first policy aiming to prevent people from dying due to COVID-19. The stomach approach will focus on economic welfare of the community during the pandemic. Lastly, the incentive approach will allow cooperatives and corporations to keep on rolling despite the pandemic crisis.
According to Moeldoko, the government is currently drafting a policy on the pandemic shift to endemic status. However, the emergence of new variants will remain a challenge.
“While being optimistic, we must remain cautious. Population mobility has now started to increase again. Don't force the government to take the option of the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) again," he said.
