VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi invited member countries of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I conveyed that Indonesia is choosing to work together. Indonesia said that the mandate of ASEAN leaders is very clear, which is thinking and acting as a community. The ministers will implement that mandate,” Retno said on a press conference after the 53rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Summit (AMM) on Wednesday.

In the health sector, Indonesia underlined the need for vaccine cooperation in the region, including through the ASEAN pharmaceutical and health industry research center and building regional health resilience.

Indonesia also emphasized that economic cooperation and revitalization of economic activities need to start while adhering to health protocols.

"Regarding the revitalization of economic activity, Indonesia suggested the ASEAN travel corridor. We have submitted the first draft of the ASEAN travel corridor, which has been supported by ASEAN member countries," Retno said.

If agreed, the travel corridor arrangement will facilitate business people, officials, and diplomats to travel and carry out economic activities in the region.

Finally, Indonesia emphasized the importance of intensive coordination and communication among ASEAN member countries to avoid sudden policies, which could damage the building of cooperation that ASEAN has long built. (Antaranews)

The Jakarta Government will officially impose large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) as it was at the beginning of the pandemic. This follows the trend of the high development of Covid-19 cases over the past week and will be effective on Sept. 14, 2020.

Restaurants and cafes are one of the business sectors that are directly related to this emergency brake policy.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said that these businesses could only serve orders to carry out. No one is allowed to serve meals on the premises.

"Food businesses, restaurants, restaurants, cafes are allowed to continue operating, but they are not allowed to receive visitors to eat on-site," Anies said on Wednesday.

He said gathering in a closed room for a meal together is one of the triggers for the Covid-19 transmission. So he emphasized that all restaurants in the capital can only serve delivery orders.

"So, orders are taken, orders are delivered, but they do not eat at the location, because we find that in these places there is an interaction that leads to transmission," Anies said.

The Jakarta Government is still preparing regulations related to the reintroduction of the PSBB in total in this capital city.

There will be 11 essential fields that are still allowed to operate, but the implementation is kept to a minimum. (RRI)

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan officially declared the capital city to be in a state of emergency for the Covid-19 outbreak on Wednesday night.

Anies said this decision is in accordance with President Joko Widodo's direction regarding health control as a top priority to achieve economic recovery during the pandemic.

"The President firmly stated not to restart the economy until health is under control. He put health as a top priority. There are not many options for Jakarta except to pull the emergency brake as soon as possible,” Anies told reporters at City Hall on Wednesday.

"We will pull the emergency brake, which means we are forced to re-implement large-scale social restrictions [PSBB]. It's no longer a transitional PSBB, but we have to carry out the PSBB as it was in the early days," Anies said.

"We will implement work at home, learn from home, and pray from home," he added.

According to the Governor, this policy will be effective starting September 14, 2020. The reason for this emergency brake was taken because of the significant increase in the number of Covid-19 cases.

According to Anies, this can be seen from the percentage of the number of funerals in Covid-19, the use of isolation beds to the use of the special Covid-19 ICU facilities in Jakarta over the past two weeks.

He emphasized that if this situation continues, hospitals will not be able to accommodate the growing number of Covid-19 patients and the impact of deaths from Covid-19 will increase.

"And this is what we have to draw out, as we saw earlier, once the restrictions were put in place, the number of cases decreased. So that we can save our brothers. Once again, this is a matter of saving the citizens of Jakarta, if this is allowed, the hospital will not be able to accommodate it and the effect of this is that there will be high mortality in Jakarta," Anies said

Regarding the details of the implementation later, Anies continued, it will be conveyed while the policy is running. However, there are 11 vital business fields that can continue to run but with minimal capacity, namely: Health, Food / Food and Beverage, Energy, Communication and Information Technology, Finance, Logistics, Hospitality, Construction, Strategic Industries, Basic Services, Utilities public and industry which are designated as national vital objects and certain objects, and Fulfillment of daily needs.

Anies Baswedan emphasized three things that Jakarta residents must obey, namely working from home, studying from home, and praying at home.

On Wednesday, 1,026 cases have increased, so that the total number of Covid-19 cases in the capital has reached 49,837.

Dwi Oktavia, Head of Disease Prevention and Control in Jakarta said this increase was obtained from the results of the massive PCR test conducted by the Provincial Government.

"We took 9,904 PCR specimens, 1,026 were positive and 6,897 were negative. The total PCR test rate per one million population is 67,335. The number of people tested for PCR this past week is 59,146," she explained in a daily update on the development of the Covid-19 case at City Hall.

"As long as the vaccine is not yet available, the transmission of the plague must be prevented together with the discipline of enforcing social restrictions and health protocol," she said. (RRI)

Indonesian parliamentary delegation pushed for resolutions on regional stability in the South China Sea amid the global pandemic and humanitarian aid for the Rohingyas of Rakhine State, Myanmar at an ASEAN forum on Wednesday.

The Indonesian delegation fought for the approval of resolutions drafted on the two issues at the 41st General Assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA), which was held online.

The Indonesian delegation was headed by the chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Committee of the House of Representatives (DPR), Fadli Zon. He was accompanied by his deputy, Putu Supadma Rudana, and delegation member Didi Irawady Samsudin.

At the meeting, Fadli Zon argued that the draft resolution on regional stability and peace was important to strengthen ASEAN's inter-parliamentary cooperation for handling the spread of the novel coronavirus outbreak and its tremendous socio-economic impacts.

The Indonesian delegation also brought up another draft resolution on humanitarian aid for the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

Speaking on the issue, Fadli Zon deplored the Parliament of Myanmar's refusal to the DPR's proposal for AIPA support for agreements reached by the governments of ASEAN member countries on the Rohingya issue.

He argued that the problems related to the Rohingya people in Rakhine State had triggered a spillover effect on the Southeast Asian region, such as the arrival of people by boat from Myanmar's Rakhine State amid the pandemic situation.

Indonesia and many other countries are paying serious attention to the “boat people” issue, he said. Therefore, support for Myanmar to provide humanitarian aid and a guarantee for conducting peaceful and humanist repatriation of the Rohingya refugees are important, he added.

Regarding the humanitarian issues related to the Rohingya people, Fadli Zon revealed that this year's AIPA's General Assembly would not pass any resolution if the assembly's political commission fails to reach a consensus on the DPR's proposals.

On June 24, 2020, three Acehnese fishermen had rescued 99 Rohingya migrants on humanitarian grounds after their boat got stranded in the waters off Seunuddon, North Aceh.

The High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)-Indonesia Office had officially granted refugee status to the 99 Rohingya migrants, according to Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in her press statement in July this year. (ANTARA)