ER
THE INDONESIA’S government to this day has issued a Community Activity Restriction (PPKM) program starting from Micro PPKM, Emergency PPKM and now PPKM Level 4, as an effort to break the chain of transmission of COVID-19.
According to Billy Dahlan as Chairman of the Central Java Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (HIPMI) BPD Central Java in a casual dialogue with a number of stakeholders and Jakarta’s online medias, on Saturday (7/23) said representing entrepreneurs from Central Java, I have no objections to the existence of the PPKM program, as long as the program is measurable, directed, so that the handling is effective.
“Entrepreneurs have not made it easy for the COVID-19 problem, which has not yet been completed and has cost a large budget of up to IDR700 trillion. Entrepreneurs have no problems with PPKM and lockdowns, as long as programs like PPKM are measurable, directed and the progress is clear so that the handling is effective,” said Billy.
He explained that citing data from the official website www.covid19.go.id, the total number of COVID-19 cases was around 3 million for 17 months, this is equivalent to 1.1% of the total population in Indonesia. The total death rate due to COVID-19 reached 77 thousand people or equivalent to 0.03% and 55,000 active cases equivalent to 0.02%.
Based on the official data, said Billy, the government’s policies regarding several PPKM implementations have an impact on 90% of the economic and social structure throughout Indonesia.
“When talking about a health crisis, it means that what should be handled is how to secure active cases, which are 0.02%, don’t sacrifice a healthy average policy for all (90%). And how long is this going to last? The first PPKM program might not be a problem because it is related to trial and error to find out what the character of COVID-19 is,” said Billy.
However, he continued, after 17 months and already knowing the character of COVID-19, what actually happened was not a problem of community mobility but whether each region was able to handle active cases that occurred in their area.
And it turns out that the social assistance program (Bansos) as an accompaniment to PPKM is also considered less effective for the community to survive while staying at home so as not to carry out social mobility and earn a living. This PPKM incident has been repeated many times, and the government has opened the lid on community mobility.
“When there was a new variant of COVID-19, then the government exploded again, issuing PPKM again. How long do you want it to be like this? Supposedly, if the government understands the character of Covid-19 and is able to handle cases that are actively exposed, the way to solve it is more effective,” he noted.
He pointed out that if Indonesia lacks health facilities and lacks health workers, it should focus on that. It is more effective and knows what to deal with. So, tolerance for cases of active people can be handled, so there is no need to issue a mobility policy. Even though it is accompanied by monthly social assistance because it is proven to only be able to survive for about 2 weeks.
“If the social assistance is used for health purposes such as buying masks and/or vitamins, it is still appropriate. But what if it is used for other purposes such as paying for vehicle installments or other consumptive things, this is not effective. It would be better to improve health facilities and add more health workers,” Billy remarked.
According to Billy, who is also the CEO of PT Dafam Group, actually, this entrepreneur has no problem with PPKM, but don’t open or close or even lock down. But the government must handle it properly.
“Let’s say that 514 regencies and cities in Indonesia are budgeted for only Rp. 1 trillion and if they handle the active cases of COVID-19, specifically for health, it is enough to solve the problem and there is no need for PPKM,” he continued.
Entrepreneurs, he said, are no longer willing to make sacrifices in dealing with COVID-19. But there have been sacrifices again. During the 17 months of COVID-19, we have laid off 2000 people, laid off more than 600 people, in PPKM this time the income is empty or zero.
“As long as the government’s mindset is not correct in handling the number of active cases exposed to COVID-19 and then emergency PPKM is applied again, the business world such as hotels will die in the next 1 month. Health problems are solved by health, not at the expense of the economy and social, like this PPKM program,” concluded Billy.
Meanwhile, Arnaz Andraasmara as the Chairman of the Semarang City Chamber of Commerce added that he also gave suggestions to the central government, so that the PPKM was returned to the regional authorities.
“If the policies of the central government are generalized to the regions, all entrepreneurs will go out of business. And this is not fair,” he concluded. [traveltext.id]
