Luhut to Propose Local Lockdown Scheme to Jokowi

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan was reportedly set to propose a local lockdown scheme to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo during today’s teleconference meeting, Monday, March 30. 

"The option to enforce regional quarantine will also be proposed by the Coordinating Minister (Luhut) in the meeting," said the Coordinating Ministry’s special staffer for Institutional and Media Affairs, Jodi Mahardi, via a text message to Tempo on Monday.

The option is one of the efforts to stop the transmission of coronavirus infection or Covid-19. Luhut will also propose a ban on mass exodus ahead of this year’s Eid al-Fitr holiday or locally known mudik Lebaran.

The plan on regional isolation had been disclosed earlier by Coordinating Minister for Legal, Political, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD. The government, he said, was preparing a regulation on the matter.

“I am preparing a draft of government regulation because [a quarantine] must be regulated under government regulations," said Mahfud in a video conference on Friday, March 27, 2020.

Mahfud MD explained that government regulation will rule about the criteria of regions that can enter local quarantine up to the procedures. A region, he added, could initiate a lockdown if it is proposed by the head of the provincial Covid-19 task force in coordination with the relevant ministries.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA | TAUFIQ SIDDIQ