President can no longer ‘just give orders’
JAKARTA: A direct intervention by Indonesian President Joko Widodo is needed to mitigate the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, said a University of Indonesia epidemiologist.
According to Tempo.co, epidemiologist Pandu Riono said the president could no longer “just give orders” to those who “have the power”, but must assign competent people to a modern management system to handle the pandemic.
“(The president) can’t j ust name those who are trusted, but it should be based on the competence,” said Pandu on Saturday.
He said this in reference to the appointment of State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir and Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar in the team of Covid-19 mitigation in nine provinces.
Indonesian Pediatric Society chief Aman Bhakti Pulungan said it was important to appoint the right people to the job.
He disagreed with the government’s decision to allow regional heads to handle the pandemic based on the characteristics of each region, as the Covid-19 pandemic was a national disaster.
Aman expressed concerns that regional administrations would come up with their own improvisations and interpretations in handling the matter.
Likening the pandemic to a war, he said instructions should be under one command, which is the central government.
“Take a look at Malaysia, they handled Covid-19 centrally and they did it well.”