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A tale from the east, where light no longer comes
This frenzied merrymaking on a small island by the NTT leaders is nothing but a shameless display of selfishness and ignorance of not only the 5 million people of the province but also the entire nation.
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Health hazard: Dozens of people, including the governor, deputy governor and mayor and regents of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), gather at Otan Beach in Semau district in Kupang on Aug. 27, violating emergency public activity restrictions put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19. (Antara/Kornelis Kaha)
T
he fact that democracy has metamorphosed into democrazy did not only take place in the Armenian parliament, but also in the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration. Democracy as formulated by Abraham Lincoln as a government of the people, by the people, for the people has now changed into a whimsical application of arbitrary regulations by a small group of powerholders for their own benefits.
While in Armenia a brawl between parliament members had to do with the ruling party’s accusation of betrayal leveled on past defense ministers, in NTT, the silent restlessness concerned the blatant demonstration of powerholders’ neglect of the people’s sufferings.
The central government has imposed public activity restrictions (PPKM) to contain the spread of COVID-19. In many areas, the mobility curbs have driven people crazy, as they cannot work from home, and for generations, they have been accustomed to moving around to earn their income.
Now, in front of the people’s desperation to fulfill their basic needs, NTT Governor Viktor Laiskodat gathered all the 21 regents and mayor across the province for a pompous party with loud music and wild dances in his hometown of Semau, a small island adjacent to Kupang. The gathering was held under the guise of the launch of an acceleration team for regional financial access.
In January of this year, the governor contracted COVID-19 and was treated at the Army Hospital in Jakarta.
This pompous party aside, around six weeks ago, to the surprise of the NTT people, the governor facilitated the transfer of late regent Yentji Sunur’s remains from Kupang to Lembata by air. Yentji had died in Kupang of COVID-19 and, according to regulations, the body of a person who died of COVID-19 must be buried immediately, day or night, in a specific burial place — no matter what his or her status was.
This precedent is a barefaced exhibition of the discrimination of the upper and lower social strata. Unsurprisingly, it prompted a quarrel between several patients’ families and hospital authorities. Quite often, hospital authorities decide to bury a deceased patient under COVID-19 protocols but fail to show material evidence that the disease had been the cause of the death.
