Investment at All Costs: Jokowi Fails the Coronavirus Test

Photo: Hafidz Mubarak A for Antara via Indonesia at Melbourne

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s lack of leadership and failure to respond tactically to the COVID-19 crisis has become increasingly clear over recent weeks. Indonesia now has the highest death rate from coronavirus in the world, suggesting that there are thousands of undetected cases in the community.

The Indonesian government’s response to the crisis has been marked by denial, complacency, and a lack of transparency about the location and number of positive cases.

Minister of Health Terawan Agus Putranto should take responsibility for the government’s failure to respond fast enough to COVID-19. He initially brushed off concerns about the virus, attacking Harvard researchers who warned that Indonesia likely had undetected cases, and said that Indonesia remained virus-free because of prayer.

The Health Ministry has been painfully slow to implement a proper testing regime. Indonesia is only now rolling out mass testing, at a time when community transmission already appears to be widespread.

Indonesia’s rate of testing is the lowest in the world. On 23 March, Indonesia had conducted just 2,438 tests, equivalent to just 0.02 percent of the 10 million residents of Jakarta, or 0.004 percent of the 49 million residents of West Java, the two provinces currently recording the most cases of COVID-19. At least six medical professionals have now died from the virus, contributing to fears that the country’s stretched public health system will soon be overwhelmed.

Click here to keep reading. Ahmad Syarif Syechbubakr writes for Indonesia at Melbourne.