Indonesian students returning from China and Chinese Indonesians have had to suffer the effects of misinformation about the novel coronavirus outbreak, which has created a stigma against the two groups.

Adam Amrismafasyah, a 19-year-old student at Jiangsu Normal University thought he would be able to rest easy once he arrived in his hometown in Muaraenim regency, South Sumatra, on Saturday. However, he was met with with suspicion and outright paranoia from locals who were not convinced that he was free of the deadly virus.

“Some of my neighbors have steered clear of me. Others have asked me upfront whether I had been thoroughly examined and whether I was completely free of the coronavirus,” Adam told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview on Tuesday.

He said his neighbors’ attitudes were frustrating, especially considering the fact that his university was located in Xuzhou, Jiangsou province, approximately 676 kilometers from the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Despite his frustration, Adam said he understood why locals would scrutinize him as there were fears of the coronavirus spreading to Indonesia. He said he had complied with established safety procedures to alleviate public concerns by wearing a mask — which he must do for 14 days — and limiting outdoor activities.

“I think I’d do the same thing if I was in their position,” he said.

In Surabaya, East Java, Chinese-Indonesian Amanda Tresiliana Mulio, 20, said she had experienced racism for the first time in her life after strangers at Pucang market on Monday called her and her mother carriers of the new virus.

“My mother and I were walking past a group of men sitting on the side of the road toward our car when they said, ‘Be careful, corona[virus] is passing by!’ After I heard that, I didn’t dare look at them and just walked faster to my car,” she told the Post on Wednesday.

Amanda had gone to the market to buy plastic bags to wrap dozens of face masks that she planned to give to her friends when she flew later in the month to Taiwan, where she studied at Dayeh University. Taiwan has begun rationing face masks, giving out two masks per person every week to prevent hoarding.

Amanda, who had returned to Indonesia on Jan. 12 for the Lunar New Year, said she could understand the panic but argued that it had been made worse by misinformation targeting not only Chinese people but also Chinese products on social media.

Among the 54 false pieces of information about the new virus debunked by the Communications and Information Ministry as of Monday were those with anti-China sentiment, such as warnings to throw away China-made Xiaomi phones, avoid using Chinese products or receiving Chinese packages and staying away from Chinese people.

The head of a biomedical research center at the ministry’s Health Research and Development Agency (Balitbangkes), Vivi Setiawaty, said that efforts to study the novel coronavirus were still ongoing, noting that so far no studies had proven that the virus could be transmitted through goods.

A social welfare observer from the University of Indonesia, Rissalwan Habdy Lubis, said the government had to address misinformation about the novel coronavirus seriously before it led to discrimination and violence. 

He said that information based on scientific reasoning had not reached the public, who had rather been exposed to misinformation on social media, where facts could become relative.

“The government, for instance, must broadcast public announcements about the novel coronavirus on mainstream media to make this information accessible to the public. [...] The government has been very loose on this matter,” he said.

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