It’s October, which means it’s been eight solid months since the first time Covid-19 landed in Indonesia. But still I can’t see it decline anytime soon.
A friend of mine asked me naively: “When will you think it’s over? This December?”
I laughed it off. Not that I’m pessismistic but I’m realistic and more fact-based.
Indonesians are known for their laid-back attitude, hospitality and kindness. But when it comes to discipline and adaptability to abrupt changes, we as a people have to struggle a lot. We suck at these aspects.
It’s no doubt the main factors that hold ourselves back from getting out of this pandemic sooner.
I looked back at May. That was exactly when European countries had just passed their peak. Italy lost so many lives. But Indonesia’s Covid-19 positive cases kept climbing up, no sign of stopping or slowing down.
Some institutions tried to predict the end of the pandemic. They define the peak of pandemic occurs when the curve is flattened and the sign of slowing down, the declining number of new positive cases.
So how about the peak of pandemic in Indonesia?
Kompas ridiculously predicted that Indonesia would reach the peak by May 2020. Some other predicted June or July 2020. The optimism was because ‘mudik’ (annual trips taken before and after Ied el Fitr) was completely forbidden by the government to curb the spread. The peak itself spans usually quite a long time: 10-20 days.
Even the assigned COVID-19 National Task Force (Gugus Tugas Percepatan Penanganan COVID-19) of the government has completely and shamefully failed to predict. They stupidly forecast that the peak of pandemic in Indonesia was May 2020. And it’d end in June 2020, with 95,000 positive cases. Wow!
Now we all know for sure that those are just wishful thoughts. Fairytales to keep our hope high.
Even a Singaporean institute was wrong. They released a statement claiming that the end of pandemic would be the first week of September 2020. That would probably true in Singapore, where citizens are more educated and more easily disciplined and the government has less barrier to go against but in Indonesia it’s another story.
Indonesians, as I told you before, are never that disciplined. We may be told but it takes more than just reading to internalize the messages that the coronavirus is real and lethal to some people.
Had Covid-19 been more lethal, would they have been more disciplined and obedient? Time will tell.
But for the time being, the pandemic in Indonesia has kept going unabated. Jakarta government has applied some transitional large-scale social restrictions but it is on and off, showing there’s a tugs of war between two major parties: the pro-health and pro-economy party.
Can both go hand in hand? I’m not sure about that. We have to prioritize health and then economy comes later.
Things even go more complex when the tugs of war is joined by the pro-religion party, claiming that religious matters should come first before economic and health affairs. “Why does the government allow people to go shopping while going to mosque on Friday (which is compulsory) is absolutely forbidden?”
Indonesians are also known for their knack for avoiding rules so skillfully. They can devise various unthinkable plans to escape the lockdown. Some of them are born rebels and bravely show their stance in public. While some were locked down in Jakarta, these rebels found ways to escape the capital and managed to go home, risking to put themselves and their family members into contracting the virus. They even rented an ambulance just to deceive state apparatus. But once caught, they were sent back home in Jakarta. But again, who could guarantee?
The government launched a movement to empower people in villages to isolate visitors coming to their villages but these people were untrained and no health experts and had no authority whatsoever to make others stay in complete isolation for 2 weeks. (*/)
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