Day: December 27, 2021

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan implored the public to go on vacations to domestic tourist attractions, given all the national Omicron cases had come from abroad.

“The government once again reminds the public to not travel overseas if it is not for something really urgent. If you just want to go on vacation, I repeat, if you just want to go on vacation, go to various domestic tourist attractions in Indonesia,” the minister stated during a weekly press conference as seen here on Monday.

Apart from the decision being a step to avoid further entry of Omicron cases, Pandjaitan remarked that domestic tourist attractions were no less beautiful than their foreign counterparts.

“When you go on a domestic vacation, it will also help accelerate recovery of the national economy,” he pointed out.

The minister revealed that so far, the number of confirmed cases of Omicron in Indonesia had reached 46, with most of them constituting travelers, who had made overseas trips to various countries. The rest of them were officers at the Athlete’s Village Hospital that had contracted the infection from foreign travelers.

“I call to your attention, (please) do not go on vacation overseas yet, except for jobs that force us to go,” he appealed.

Pandjaitan pointed out that the spread of Omicron was getting more rampant, and it had been detected in 115 countries across the world, including in Indonesia, with a total of over 184 thousand cases.

Although the variant’s spread is rapid, data from other countries showed that the Omicron variant had caused less deaths than the Delta variant.

A study conducted in the UK also showed that the Omicron variant imposed a significantly lower risk of hospitalization than its Delta counterpart. Currently, the number of cases in South Africa had also declined.

“However, we still have to be careful, as data in other countries shows cases (among the) children have increased because of Omicron. Thus, I urge parents living in regions that have started COVID-19 vaccinations for children to immediately bring their children to be vaccinated,” he emphasized.

Source: Antara News

The Indonesian government has increased the number of quarantine facilities as a precautionary measure against an increase in the number of migrant workers returning to the country amid the year-end holidays.

The step aims to curb the transmission of the new COVID-19 variant of Omicron, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin noted during a virtual press conference here on Monday.

According to the COVID-19 Task Force, the government has readied several quarantine facilities in Jakarta, comprising the Wisma Atlet (Athlete’s Village) Kemayoran COVID-19 Emergency Hospital, with 4,916 beds; Wisma Atlet Pademangan, with 5,796 beds; and several hotels, with a total of 16,588 beds.

In addition, 11,892 beds at Pasar Rumput Flats, 2,352 beds at Nagrak Cilincing Flats, 1,500 beds at Daan Mogot Flats, and 480 beds at the Jakarta Provincial Education Quality Assessor’s building are designated as additional isolation sites.

The minister noted that the ministry also reactivates several buildings that were earlier also used as quarantine places.

“We will also use the (Jakarta’s Pondok Gede) Hajj Dormitory. Furthermore, we prepare quarantine places in Surabaya City, East Java Province,” he stated.

The government will also ready quarantine facilities at other regions that serve as Indonesia’s entry points from sea and land, such as Batam City, Riau Islands Province, since Indonesian migrant workers coming from Malaysia often used those points, he revealed.

Earlier, the government’s decision to change the isolation period, from seven days to 10 days, resulted in long queues of travelers awaiting quarantine.

However, Sadikin has ensured that it will not occur henceforth.

The currently available quarantine facilities can accommodate all international travelers since the government has increased the number of facilities, he emphasized.

As of December 26, 2021, some 46 Omicron cases were detected in Indonesia, most of which were imported.

Source: Antara News

Vaccination rate outside the Java-Bali region had increased and contributed 55.6 percent to the national average rate, according to Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Airlangga Hartarto.

“The average rate of vaccination in the past week has increased slightly since child vaccinations began, with an average of 1,219,453 doses per day,” Hartarto stated on Monday.

Vaccination for children in the age bracket of six to 11 years had increased the daily vaccination rate of over 300 thousand doses in the last four days. In total, 2,324,644 doses were administered to children aged six to 11 years.

Meanwhile, the government has targeted health workers, including supporting staff working at health facilities, elderly, and the beneficiaries of fund assistance, to receive the vaccine booster.

“This booster vaccine will be distributed by Biofarma and can be conducted in a homologous or heterologous way,” Hartarto noted.

Meanwhile, the independent booster vaccination program targets other community groups mentioned above. The distribution of this independent booster vaccine will conducted by Biofarma and/or a pharmaceutical company that meets the standards of vaccine delivery/logistics and vaccination implementation and can be conducted in either a homologous or heterologous manner.

“The booster vaccine program still awaits the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization’s (ITAGI’s) reports and recommendations on January 10, 2022,” the minister noted.

Furthermore, Hartarto highlighted the latest developments pertaining to the Merah Putih Vaccine and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) vaccines. First, the Airlangga University (Unair)-PT Biotis vaccine is still awaiting approval for the Phase I clinical trials from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM). Thereafter, the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials will be conducted in January-June 2022, while the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) and Indonesian Ulema Council’s (MUI’s) fatwa are expected in the third quarter of 2022.

The Eijkman-Bio Farma’s vaccine collaboration is in the pre-clinical testing stage and still awaiting the industrial Good Manufacturing Practice (CPOB) facilities. The EUA and MUI Fatwa are expected to be issued in the fourth quarter of 2022.

For the Bio Farma-Baylor College of Medicine’s vaccine collaboration (SOEs vaccine), the clinical trial 1 has started on December 13, while the EUA and MUI Fatwa are expected to be completed in July 2022. The registration to obtain the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Emergency Use of Listing is expected to be completed on June 8, 2021, while the producer must be able to fulfill production capacity to reach 150 million doses during the June-December 2022 period.

Meanwhile, the development of SOEs vaccines and cooperation for domestic production, including GX-19 (Kalbe Farma & Genexine), is currently in the phase 3 of clinical trial to obtain the EUA. The EUA and MUI Fatwa are projected to be available in early 2022, with production capacity reaching 50 million doses in the June-December 2022 period.

Lastly, the Zifivax vaccine (JBio-Anhui Zhifei) has cleared the phase 3 clinical trials and readied a joint production facility for Biotis in Serang, Banten. The EUA for those in the age bracket of 18-59 years has been issued since October 7, 2021, with halal fatwa from MUI Number 35 of 2021. The producer is expected to produce 150 million vaccine doses in 2022.

Source: Antara News

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is hopeful that construction of the Bali International Hospital in Denpasar City, Bali, would make the province a health tourism destination.

“Once the hospital is ready, the people would not need to go abroad to be treated, as they can head to Bali Province. Thus, the province will become a health tourism destination,” he remarked at the groundbreaking ceremony of the hospital in Denpasar City, Bali Province, on Monday.

Jokowi noted that annually, some two million Indonesians visited Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, the United States, and other countries, for health treatments due to which Indonesia incurred potential revenue losses to the tune of Rp97 trillion.

Hence, Jokowi lauded the idea of establishing the international hospital that was proposed by State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir and his staff.

In addition, the president expects Indonesia to become one of the destinations for foreigners keen on receiving quality health services.

“We hope that not only our own people will go to Bali Province for health treatment but also the foreigners, as the hospital will collaborate with the renowned Mayo Clinic,” he added.

Mayo Clinic is a non-profit American academic medical center.

In addition to the president and the SOEs minister, the groundbreaking ceremony was attended by Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Investment Minister/Head of Investment Coordinating Board Bahlil Lahadalia, and other related officials.

On October 2021, the SOEs minister had held a meeting with Governor of Bali I Wayan Koster regarding the construction of a health special economic zone in the region and the readiness of SOEs to support the reopening of international flights to Bali Province as the main entry points to the resort island for foreigners.

Source: Antara News

Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, has called for more testing and tracing to anticipate the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Many people infected with the Omicron variant have been found to be asymptomatic, he pointed out. At the same time, there has been a decline in testing and tracing, he noted.

“Since, maybe, in some places, there are already zero cases, thus they are lazy to conduct testing. However, we urge you to continue testing because asymptomatic (people) are often found (to be infected with) Omicron,” he said at an online press conference, accessed from here on Monday.

Testing and tracing can help identify potential cases with high viral loads and isolate infected people so that the virus does not spread quickly, he added.

“Through stricter enforcement of testing and tracing, quarantine measures at the micro-level, such as those conducted at the Athlete’s Village (Hospital), can be implemented if local transmission of the Omicron variant has been detected,” the minister explained.

Due to the government’s firm steps to prevent the entry of the Omicron variant, COVID-19 cases in the country are still low, Pandjaitan highlighted.

Coronavirus cases have remained low for 164 days so far since the Delta wave peaked on July 15 this year, he said. Until the present, there has been no indication of an increase in cases due to an Omicron spike, he informed.

Additionally, the rate of hospitalization and the current death toll is still showing signs of being under control, he noted.

“However, the government remains cautious, because we still don’t know much about this virus,” the minister said.

COVID-19 data monitoring is being conducted strictly, down to the district and city level, he added.

“As I said last week, the tightening of community activities will only be carried out when it exceeds a certain threshold, taking into account not only daily cases, but also cases of hospitalization and deaths,” he explained.

The rate of vaccination among the general and elderly population in Java and Bali regions has also continued to increase, the minister said. The first and second dose coverage in those areas has crossed 80 percent and 60 percent, respectively, he added.

The preliminary results of the National Serosurvey have also indicated a fairly high immunity among the public, Pandjaitan pointed out.

“However, there are still several districts and cities with the first dose of vaccination below 50 percent. The government continues to encourage the participation of regional governments to continue to push for (higher) vaccination (rate) in their (respective) regions,” he said.

Going forward, the government has also urged regions to prepare hospital facilities and isolation centers for the purpose of mitigation, he added.

In addition, the enforcement of health protocols and the use of PeduliLindungi during the Christmas and New Year holidays must also be boosted, Pandjaitan said.

Source: Antara News

On December 16, the sexual violence prevention bill (RUU TPKS) failed to be brought to the House of Representatives’ (DPR’s) plenary meeting of the second sitting period for 2021-2022 closing to become DPR’s initiative bill.

This failure extends the wait for the ratification of RUU TPKS that had been proposed since 2016.

According to DPR Deputy Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, a technical issue was the reason behind the bill not being brought to the plenary meeting.

The issue was that the time limit for the leadership meeting and deliberation agency had passed.

Discussion for the RUU TPKS was not yet over at the level I, thereby leaving no time for it to be included in the agenda of the leadership meeting and deliberation agency.

While awaiting its return, what exactly is the background of sexual violence cases in the nation? Moreover, what drives the urgency for the bill’s ratification and why are there those who oppose it?

The prevalence of sexual violence in Indonesia is apparent from the emergence of several cases.

COVID-19 is not the only plague that exists, as sexual violence has become a pandemic of sorts, with no end in sight.

According to the National Commission on Violence Against Women’s (Komnas Perempuan’s) 2021 annual record, 299,991 cases of violence against women were reported in 2020.

Sexual violence cases dominated the data, with 45.6 percent of them occurring in the public space while 17.8 percent in the private domain.

Data from the Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry presented a similarly grim picture.

According to the data collection in 2019, the number of cases of violence against children totaled 11,057, while 11,279 cases were reported in 2020, and 12,566 cases until November 2021.

From these cases, sexual violence, once again, became the one to be most frequently experienced by children, at 45 percent.

Moreover, a recent sexual violence case came to light wherein a pesantren, a boarding school, administrator had harassed and raped 11 of his students.

This data presentation drives the urgency to ratify the RUU TPKS to act as a legal umbrella to halt the pace of the sexual violence pandemic.

Urgency to ratify the bill

Politician from the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party Rahayu Saraswati Djojohadikusumo deemed it important to immediately ensure that the bill becomes DPR’s initiative bill and ratify it into a law.

Several existing regulations have not yet specifically regulated matters that concern prosecution in sexual violence cases that could provide justice and protection for victims, she noted.

The Criminal Code (KUHP), Child Protection Law, Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE) Law, and even the Pornography Law could not offer legal protection to Indonesian citizens, who became victims of sexual violence.

A similar opinion was also voiced by law practitioner Gugum Ridho Putra. Specifically, he discussed the absence of prosecution in sexual violence cases within the KUHP.

The KUHP does not yet cover non-physical sexual violence, such as a verbal crime that attack the victims’ psyche and intimidate them, he highlighted.

In addition, the stipulations within KUHP do not yet accommodate the best interests of sexual violence victims that leads these cases to become an iceberg phenomenon.

This phenomenon means that the revealed cases are a fraction of the actual case count, as several victims stayed mum for various reasons.

For instance, they were afraid nobody will believe their testimonies or they felt shame over their experience, and they believed that the law within the nation did not side with them.

Furthermore, the KUHP still applies the same legal process for sexual violence cases akin to other criminal cases that necessitates two sufficient evidences.

This is despite the fact that not all victims are capable of presenting evidences.0

Opposition to the bill’s ratification

While there is a real urgency in ratifying the RUU TPKS, facts on the field led several parties to oppose its ratification.

According to Putra, one of the factors that led to the rejection of the bill is its title.

Several parties believe that the word “violence” in the title can potentially lead to a new issue, specifically the non-violence aspect that ends up not being stipulated within the regulation.

With this, every non-violence sexual crime will not be penalized. To this end, these parties proposed to change the bill’s title to sexual crime prevention bill.

The next reason involves the indication of sexual consent, meaning there was no prohibition to fornication and same-sex relations, which indicates such behaviors are accepted within the bill.

In response, Head of the Sexual Violence Prevention Bill Work Committee Willy Aditya stressed that the bill does not contain sexual consent.

The perspective that sexual consent is contained within the bill was the result of a misunderstanding among several parties, he explained.

Based on these reasons, it is understandable that there are rejections to the RUU TPKS that could actually become an input to make the regulation better.

Hope for the bill in future

The various problems and oppositions do not mean that the RUU TPKS does not have any hope of being ratified. Despite differing perspectives, there still exists an opportunity of finding a way out.

To this end, the hope for the bill to become DPR’s initiative bill and then ratified stills exist.

DPR’s hard work in responding to the people’s legal need, specifically a stringent legal protection to protect people from sexual harassment cases, still has to be lauded, Putra affirmed.

While it is urgent to have the bill ratified, the formulation of the regulation should be done with precision to prevent the presence of any ambiguous articles, he remarked.

The existence of these ambiguous articles could potentially allow them to be exploited by morally corrupt parties and become a gateway to a host of other legal issues.

Based on these factors, it can be concluded that the monitoring and encouragement of the bill’s ratification to become a legal shield from all kinds of sexual violence is unavoidable.

In addition, it is equally important to understand that the long wait for the bill’s ratification due to various existing perspectives should be positively channeled into hope and optimism.

This is since these varying perspectives would allow the regulation to become the best legal protection against sexual violence for Indonesia.

Source: Antara News