Two Recent Presidential Directives related to Covid-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery
Detiktoday.com – President Joko Widodo again held a limited meeting which discussed the handling of Covid-19 and the recovery of the national economy with his staff at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Monday, August 3, 2020. During the meeting, the President gave two directions namely the first related to the socialization of health protocols to the public.
“First of all, I don’t know why, but the atmosphere in recent weeks has seen people in a position of worry about Covid-19. Either because of increasing cases or, especially upper-middle-class viewing, because people who don’t adhere to health protocols don’t less, but more, “the President said.
Based on data until Sunday, August 2, 2020, positive confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Indonesia reached 111,455 people with 68,975 people recovered and 5,236 people died. The President also highlighted the percentage of mortality in Indonesia which is higher than the global mortality rate.
“We know that until yesterday there have been 111 thousand more cases with a 4.7 percent case fatality rate and the mortality rate in Indonesia is 0.8 percent higher than global deaths. This is what I think is our big homework together. In addition, it is also case recovery rate in our country, the latest data is 61.9 (percent). I think this is also good, the numbers continue to increase, “the President said.
Therefore, the Head of State again reminded that the implementation of health protocols continue to be disseminated to the public. Specifically, the President wants the dissemination to be carried out in a focused manner and not at the same time.
“I want the so-called health protocol, behavior change in the community to really concern us. I want to focus, as I said earlier, maybe in the next two weeks we will focus on the campaign about wearing masks. Later the next two weeks will be a guard campaign distance or washing hands for example, “said the President.
To support this, the President wants the role of the Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK) mothers to be involved. According to him, if PKK mothers are ready, then they can be an effective way to socialize health protocols from house to house.
“I think the PKK is also very effective for door to door affairs in masks. We have to do a real change in behavior by communicating on TV, on social media, etc. massively in these two weeks in different ways,” said the president.
The second direction is related to the recovery of the national economy where the President again highlights the problem of budget realization in ministries and institutions which are still minimal. According to the President, out of a total of Rp.695 trillion in stimulus for handling Covid-19, only 20 percent or Rp141 trillion had been realized.
“It is still very small. The biggest absorption is in social protection 39 percent, then the UMKM program is 25 percent. Be careful of this. What does not yet have a DIPA is still very big, maybe 40 percent. want to be realized? “
The President considered that this was due to the aura of the crisis in the ministries and institutions that had not yet appeared so that they were still trapped in their daily work without knowing what priorities they had to do. For this reason, the President asked the Chair of the Covid-19 Handling Committee and the National Economic Recovery to detail the matter from each relevant minister.
“So that this crisis management is visible, agile, fast, troubleshooting, smart shortcuts, and the results are truly effective. We need speed,” the President said.
