VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi has reiterated that protection of Indonesian nationals overseas will remain her top focus in 2021 as dozens of countries worldwide are still reporting a high number of positive coronavirus cases.

“During the pandemic, we have refocused our diplomatic priorities... First, to strengthen the protection of Indonesian citizens; second, to support the national response to the pandemic’s impact on health and socio-economic conditions; and third, to continue contributing to world peace and stability,” Marsudi said as she virtually delivered the 2021 Annual Minister of Foreign Affairs Statement (PPTM) here on Wednesday.

In 2020, the year when more than 120 countries reported coronavirus cases, there was a significant rise in legal and non-legal cases involving Indonesian nationals abroad, the minister noted.

“More than 54,000 cases were handled ... an increase of more than 100 percent compared to 2019,” she said, adding that the protection of Indonesian nationals “goes beyond numbers”.

She also informed that more than 172 thousand Indonesian nationals were repatriated from over 60 countries, including China, and a few cruise ships during the COVID-19 outbreak last year. Indonesia’s government facilitated the return of hundred thousand nationals from overseas as many foreign governments imposed travel restrictions and closed their borders due to the pandemic, she said.

Indonesia’s embassies also distributed more than half a million basic need packages to Indonesian citizens abroad, who were affected by lockdowns last year, Marsudi added.

Related news: Lawmaker reminds Home Ministry of citizens' data protection

As per the ministry's records, around 2,400 Indonesian nationals overseas tested positive for COVID-19 in 2020, Marsudi noted.

The minister also reaffirmed Indonesia’s commitment to protect its migrant workers, including its seafarers.

“Seventeen Indonesian citizens were exonerated from the death penalty. Four hostages were released, and Rp103.8 billion of Indonesian citizens’/migrant workers’ financial rights were settled (in 2020),” Marsudi revealed.

The minister further highlighted measures taken at the global level last year.

“Upon Indonesia’s initiative and with the support of 71 UN member states on 1 December, 2020, the UN General Assembly unanimously passed a resolution on the protection of seafarers during the pandemic,” Marsudi noted.

In addition to previous measures launched by the ministry last year, the office plans to double its efforts to protect Indonesian nationals overseas this year, she added.

The efforts include increasing the budget for protection programs; upgrading the Indonesian consulate office in the city of Tawau, Malaysia into a consulate general office; creating a ratification map of ILO’s C-188 Work in Fishing Convention; and, signing MoUs on mutual legal assistance with foreign countries to better protect Indonesian seafarers overseas.

The ministry also plans to continue integrating and updating data on Indonesian nationals abroad through its Peduli WNI website, Marsudi added. (antaranews)

President Joko Widodo has picked January 14 and January 15, 2021 to launch the initial stage of Indonesia’s mass vaccination program against COVID-19.

He has also decided to lead the immunization drive by receiving the country's first vaccine shot on January 13, 2021, in an event that will be broadcast live.

The Indonesian government will commence its vaccine program with President Widodo getting the first COVID-19 vaccine shot and the vaccination drive will continue on January 14 and 15 in several regions across the country, Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian announced on Tuesday.

The President volunteered to be the first to receive the vaccine to boost the public's confidence on its safety, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin explained.

The President will receive China's Sinovac vaccine a day or two after the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) issues an emergency-use authorization for the vaccine.

The Phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine are being conducted by the University of Padjajaran and state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma in Bandung, West Java, since August, 2020.

BPOM said the results of the Phase III clinical trials of the Sinovac vaccine will come out in the first week of January, 2021. The BPOM will also obtain data on clinical trials of the vaccine conducted in Brazil and Turkey in order to make a decision.

The BPOM said it has discovered two types of data indicating the Sinovac vaccine's safety, based on the results of clinical trials in the past couple of months.

The two types of data pertain to the vaccine’s immunogenicity and efficacy, BPOM spokesperson for COVID-19 vaccination, Lucia Rizka Andalusia, noted in a written statement released on Tuesday.

"This vaccine is quite safe. It has no serious side effects on its users," Andalusia noted during an Alinea Forum on ‘Halal and Security of COVID-19 Vaccine’.

She revealed that the immunogenicity data showed a good immune response in the body resulting in antibody production.

The data may help dispel lingering doubts about the vaccine among the public, she stated.

Meanwhile, executive director of the Institute for Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Studies at the Indonesian Ulemas Council (LPPOM MUI), Muti Arintawati, said she is yet to ascertain whether the Sinovac vaccine can be considered halal as more information is awaited.

The LPPOM MUI's auditors have intensively studied raw materials for production of the vaccine through literature, journals, and expert information. Even if the information is complete, the MUI will still wait for BPOM's decision on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy to decide whether to issue a halal certificate or not, according to Arintawati.

So far, three million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China’s Sinovac Biotech have arrived in Indonesia in two batches — 1.2 million doses arrived on December 6, 2020, and 1.8 million doses on December 31, 2020. They have been distributed to various regions in Indonesia starting January 3, 2021.

The government has set a target to dispatch 29.55 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the regions by March, 2021.

"Our target is that for January, 5.8 million (doses of) the vaccine must reach the regions. In February, 10.45 million (doses of the) vaccine must be distributed again to the regions, and thereafter, 13.3 million (doses of) vaccine must also be distributed in March," President Widodo noted at a closed-door meeting attended by ministers and governors through video-conferencing.

In the long term, at least 70 percent of the population, or 181.5 million people, are expected to be vaccinated to establish herd immunity.

For that purpose, the government is preparing to stockpile 329.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from various manufacturers.

"I also need to mention about the number of vaccine doses that we have ordered. The firm orders include three million plus 122.5 million (doses) from Sinovac, then 50 million from Novavax, 54 million from Covax GAVI, 50 million from AstraZeneca, and 50 million (doses of the) vaccine from Pfizer. It means the total number of firm orders reaches 329.5 million (doses of) vaccines," Jokowi noted at the State Palace on Wednesday.

Novavax is being manufactured by the United States and Canada, AstraZeneca by the UK, and Pfizer is being jointly produced by pharma companies based in Germany and the United States. Covax GAVI is a multilateral cooperation between the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) that comprises 171 countries, with a target of providing two billion vaccines by the end of 2021.

The Indonesian government has set aside a budget of about Rp73 trillion for procuring COVID-19 vaccines for the 2021 immunization program, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, said earlier.

The Health Ministry earlier said that the mass vaccination program against COVID-19 would take 15 months to complete, but Jokowi has asked the ministry to complete it in less than a year. The Health Ministry promised to work hard to meet the President's request.

The ministry has so far dispatched the first batch of 700 thousand doses of the Sinovac vaccine to the regions. In mid-January, raw materials for manufacturing 15 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are scheduled to arrive from China. They will be processed into vaccines by PT Biofarma, as part of a cooperation with Sinovac. The vaccines will thereafter be sent to different regions.

In a survey conducted by the Indonesian General Election Study (LKPI), 81.7 percent of the respondents have said they are ready to receive COVID-19 vaccine doses under the government’s immunization program.

The government will carry out the COVID-19 vaccination program in two phases, according to Health Minister Sadikin. The first phase will last from January to April, 2021, and the second from April, 2021 to March, 2022.

Around 1.6 million healthcare workers, 17.4 million public service officers, and 21.5 million elderly people will be prioritized in the first phase of the program.

In the second phase of the program, vaccinations will be provided to 63.9 million vulnerable people living in areas with a high risk of transmission and 77.4 million persons from other communities, using a cluster approach, depending on the availability of vaccines.

Sadikin said the government consulted the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI), an independent agency, while mapping out the vaccination plan.

The President said he is optimistic that the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 would be brought under greater control after vaccination.

Jokowi, however, reminded citizens to adopt a disciplined approach in implementing the 3M health protocols to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 by wearing masks, maintaining distance, and washing hands.

"Do not go to crowded places and maintain your distance, as the key lies there until the vaccination is completed. Worldwide-vaccination is estimated to be competed in three and a half years," the President stated.

Despite the vaccination program, the authorities have advised Indonesians to continue applying the 3M health protocols.

"We must not become lax about 3M, not only in wearing masks, maintaining our distance, and washing our hands properly, and often. A crowd could become a super spreader. It is of no use for us to conduct tracing and it's pointless if there is still a crowd," Karnavian remarked.

Chairperson of the Task Force for COVID-19 Handling, Doni Monardo, also called for consistent public discipline in implementing health protocols.

"The narrative about this vaccine should not make people think that after the vaccine is available, everything will be over. No, the vaccine will not immediately stop COVID-19. The vaccine will not help unvaccinated people to escape COVID-19," he stated. (antaranews)

The Aceh provincial government is targeting to administer COVID-19 vaccines to 62,255 frontline medical workers after receiving the first batch of vaccines from the Indonesian Health Ministry.

The first batch of COVID-19 vaccines that the provincial government has received would be prioritized for frontline medical workers, Aceh Health Office head Hanif revealed here on Wednesday.

"The vaccine doses, allocated to every district and city in Aceh, are expected to be able to cover 22 percent of 62,255 medical workers in the province," he informed.

Aceh province received eight boxes containing 14 thousand doses of the Sinovac vaccine dispatched by state-owned pharmaceutical holding company PT Bio Farma via air on Tuesday.

The vaccine stock has been moved to the Aceh health office’s cold-storage room, while the authorities await directives for redistributing it to 23 districts and cities across Aceh, he said.

Regarding the government's national COVID-19 vaccination program, Aceh's COVID-19 task force spokesperson, Saifullah, disclosed that around 3.3 million residents of Aceh would be inoculated under the program.

The Health Ministry had revealed earlier that it would take 15 months to vaccinate about 181.5 million people across Indonesia under the national COVID-19 vaccination program.

"We need 15 months to accomplish it. Time-frame for conducting the vaccination is counted from January, 2021 to March, 2022," the Health Ministry's spokesperson for the vaccination program, Siti Nadia Tarmizi, stated on Sunday.

During that period of time, the government is targeting to vaccinate around 181.5 million people, including 1.3 million paramedics and 17.4 million public sector workers in 34 provinces, she revealed.

The first phase of the government's COVID-19 vaccination program has been divided into two parts: January-April, 2021 and April, 2021-March, 2022, according to Tarmizi.

In connection with the vaccination program, the government has highlighted the importance of a fatwa or decision by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) on the halal status of the vaccines.

Indonesian Vice Presidential spokesperson Masduki Baidlowi has assured that the government will not commence administering COVID-19 vaccines without MUI's fatwa or decision.

Hence, the COVID-19 vaccine program will be undertaken after MUI’s decision is announced on the halal status of the vaccine regarding whether it is religiously acceptable for consumption according to Muslim law, he noted on Tuesday.

Team members of the Indonesian Ulema Council Assessment Institute for Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics (LPPOM MUI) have been looking into matters related to the halal status of China's Sinovac vaccine, he stated. (antaranews)

Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has reiterated the Indonesian government's firm stand against normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel, dispelling widespread rumors of a softening of its stance late last year.

"Up till now Indonesia has no intention to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel," the minister said at an annual press conference, held online on Wednesday.

She said Indonesia will continue to support Palestinian independence through a two-state solution, based on the United Nations Security Council resolution and already agreed upon international parameters.

Earlier, on December 16, 2020, President Joko Widodo had highlighted this support during a phone conversation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Indonesia's firm stand is in contrast to the policies of several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, which have normalized diplomatic relations with Israel in the past few months.

This has been viewed as a setback for the Israel-Palestine peace process and as an indication that several Arab regimes no longer consider the Palestinian issue important.

However, for Indonesia, Palestine remains high on the list of foreign policy priorities, Marsudi said.

Indonesia expects that a conducive situation can be created this year with all sides committed to pursuing constructive dialog and direct negotiations, she said.

"Support for the Palestinian people to gain independence will continue," the minister remarked.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council, Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, recently reiterated his request to the Indonesian government to remain consistent in not normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel.

"All means of cooperation, including economic cooperation with Israel, must be rejected," he told reporters in Jakarta recently.

Israel, he said, has colonized the land and the people of Palestine for a long period of time. Indonesia needs to stay consistent to its identity as a nation against colonization, he added.

"We fully believe that colonization is not aligned with humanity and justice," he remarked.

The council, he continued, has expressed its highest appreciation towards the Minister of Foreign Affairs in responding to the question of normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel.

"The Ministry, especially the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that has shown a firm, clear, and consistent stance in carrying out Indonesia's foreign politics, that [has] stood against colonization from the beginning," he said. (antaranews)