VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Nurturing religious moderation to prevent intolerance, radicalism, and terrorism must start in families, Datokarama Islamic State University rector and academic Sagaf S. Pettalongi stated.

"Families and households, as the social components, must be strengthened to optimize their role in nurturing values of peace and religious moderation in their children," the academic stated during a seminar on women's role in promoting religious moderation and nationalism held in Sigi, Central Sulawesi, on Saturday.

Religious moderation must be promoted to nurture the habit of applying noble religious values as a principle in establishing peace and preventing violence in society and contributing to achieving national cohesion and unity, Pettalongi remarked.

The rector highlighted four qualities that determine a person with high commitment to religious moderation: their loyalty to the national ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution; opposition to physical and non-physical violence; tolerance to other religions and their adherents; and respect to traditional and cultural values espoused by society.

"Hence, promoting religious moderation in families must start by nurturing the four qualities that I have expounded," Pettalongi stated.

Promoting a moderate religious outlook in families is paramount to preventing religious intolerance and radicalism from sprouting in families, he noted.

"This is since families and parents have a paramount role in nurturing the young generation," the academic affirmed.

He pointed out that mothers and fathers, with a moderate religious outlook, will always shield their children from intolerance, radicalism, and terrorism thoughts.

"By becoming the closest figure to children, mothers have an essential role in serving as an agent of peace to guard their children against intolerance and radical thoughts in the household," Pettalongi stated.  (Antaranews)

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin expects Indonesia's healthcare system to become more resilient after the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected various sectors in society and almost overwhelmed the national healthcare system.

"The COVID-19 pandemic apart from reminding us to be persistent in following health protocols, also alerted us about the importance of enhancing the national healthcare system to become more resilient in future," the vice president remarked while officiating the COVID-19 Heroes Monument in Bandung, West Java, on Saturday.

Amin cautioned that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over and will likely continue in the foreseeable future after global scientists warned of the emergence of the new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

To prevent the new COVID-19 virus variant from entering Indonesia, the vice president urged the authority and all parties to enhance COVID-19 preventive efforts and expedite vaccination drives.

"We need to upgrade our healthcare system and accelerate COVID-19 vaccination efforts to expand the national vaccination coverage. Moreover, we need to remain disciplined in observing health protocols and stay adaptive to likely changes in future," he remarked.

Amin affirmed that the government will collaborate with relevant parties and institutions apart from maximizing health workers and regional health offices to expedite COVID-19 vaccination in Indonesian regions.

Military troops, police officers, National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN) staff, and public organizations are among institutions invited to collaborate with the government to assist in conducting vaccination drives in their respective regions, he added.

"We will expedite COVID-19 vaccination efforts in agglomeration areas, regions with low vaccination rates, and regions outside Java Island," the vice president remarked.

Amin also urged security and immigration officers to intensify monitoring of arriving travelers at all land, sea, and air entry points to prevent the COVID-19 Omicron variant from infiltrating the Indonesian border and infecting Indonesian residents. (antaranews)

Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Bintang Puspayoga cautioned women and parents to desist from sharing their family's personal data, including of their children, on social media to prevent crimes stemming from such information disclosure.

"Once again, I emphasize, never share our personal data, such as addresses and others," Puspayoga stressed during an online discussion "Being Aware of Social Media Crime to Strengthen Family Resilience" here on Saturday.

The minister also advised every parent to be careful in sharing photos on social media. She reasoned that information and photographs uploaded on social media can lead to the crimes, such as child abduction or abuse.

"Recent child abductions and abuses originated from parents' social media posts containing children's data and images," Puspayoga explained.

The minister emphasized the need for both parents and children to understand the risks of using the internet, frequent modes of crime, protection tools, and ways to protect oneself from cybercrimes.

Puspayoga called on parents and children to comprehend the importance of ensuring privacy on the internet, as what had been uploaded would be difficult to remove and prone to abuse by perpetrators across the world.

"We must ensure that children use the internet under the prevailing regulation, such as complying with the minimum age criteria for the use of social media," she pointed out.

Furthermore, the minister cited research that showed some 87 percent of Indonesian children had used social media before the age of 13.

"This becomes a cause for concern and to this end, parents should strengthen their family's resilience and build positive and warm relations in a family," Puspayoga remarked.

Meanwhile, the law that aims to protect personal data is still in draft form. On Friday, Dec 3, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics spoke of its focus on disseminating information on the Personal Data Protection Bill to the community. (Antaranews)

Vice President Ma'ruf Amin highlighted the government's aim to cover 50 percent of the target population to receive the second dose of COVID-19 by December-end to expedite the realization of herd immunity in Indonesia.

"We are aiming to at least administer the second dose of vaccination to 50 percent (of the target population) by the end of December. There are also regions, with the second dose vaccination coverage reaching 80 percent and also 100 percent," Amin noted after inaugurating the COVID-19 Heroes Monument in Bandung, West Java Province, on Saturday.

The government continues to expedite COVID-19 vaccination in various regions, considering that the number of vaccine doses for the community is sufficient to achieve herd immunity, the vice president added.

"We will expedite vaccination, as we have sufficient stocks of vaccine. Since our territory is large, with a huge population, we will still continue to increase vaccine stocks," Amin remarked.

To accelerate the implementation of COVID-19 vaccination, the government not only relies on health workers from the health services but also counts on help from members of the National Police (Polri), Indonesia Defense Forces (TNI), The National Population and Family Planning Agency (BKKBN), and mass organization.

"We will focus on agglomeration areas where the vaccination coverage is still low, at around 20 percent, as well as areas outside Java," he noted.

Meanwhile, based on data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of December 2, some 97,318,649 Indonesians had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, or more than 46 percent of the target population.

The government is still targeting 208,265,720 residents to receive two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to attain herd immunity.

The Indonesian government had earlier received vaccine assistance from the Netherlands on December 3. The arrival of the 146th batch of vaccines comprised 324 thousand doses of the Janssen vaccine. (antaranews)