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PPKM Darurat violators persist despite sanctions. Experts point to public apathy
While the government appears to be taking serious measures to enforce the PPKM Darurat for Java and Bali, including mobilizing a joint police-military force, experts say that a multitude of successive COVID-19 policies has sowed public confusion and apathy.
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Police officers divert motorcyclists at a checkpoint at the Senayan traffic circle in South Jakarta on July 3, 2021, the day the emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) came into effect for Java and Bali. The government's latest COVID-19 policy, which applies until July 20, aims to stem a "second wave" of infections that has left the health system close to collapse. (Antara/M. Risyal Hidayat)
T
he government’s emergency public activity restrictions (PPKM Darurat) for Java and Bali came into effect on Saturday, but crowds and other violations of the emergency health protocols remain widespread.
The tighter restrictions, which aim to reduce the daily COVID-19 tally to below 10,000 cases, are in place through to July 20 and apply to a total of 127 cities and regencies on the two islands.
President Joko Widodo said during last week’s announcement that the PPKM Darurat would be “more restrictive” compared to previous policies.
On Tuesday, however, the city’s roads were jammed with both essential and nonessential workers still heading to their workplaces, according to the Jakarta Police. The continuing activity had created heavy traffic at many police checkpoints, where officers check the required documents of each individual before allowing them to pass.
Long queues of passengers also formed at Commuter Line train stations, even after the rail service reduced passenger capacity to 32 percent per car and operating hours to 17 hours, from 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.
Read also: COVID-19 checkpoints create Jakarta gridlock
The high level of community mobility had persisted, the Jakarta Police said, because businesses in nonessential and “noncritical” sectors were still allowing their employees to work from the office, in direct contradiction to the government’s instruction to work from home (WFH) under the PPKM Darurat.
