Cabinet Secretariat Launches Book Chronicling Indonesia’s Measures in Tackling Pandemic

Cabinet Secretary symbolically presents the book titled “Indonesia and COVID-19 Pandemic: Hard Work in the Middle of Pandemic” to Head of National Library Muhammad Syarif Bando, on Monday (07/03), at Cabinet Secretariat Office, Jakarta (Photo: PR of Cabinet Secretariat /Agung)

Cabinet Secretariat on Monday (07/03) launched a book entitled “Indonesia and COVID-19 Pandemic: Hard Work in the Middle of Pandemic.”

The book chronicles the Indonesian people’s journey in getting through the daunting challenges of COVID-19 pandemic collected from remarks of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo from October 2019 to March 2021.

“I am very pleased that today Cabinet Secretariat launched a book titled “Indonesia and COVID-19 Pandemic: Hard Work in the Middle of Pandemic”. The book is an initiative of Cabinet Secretariat to contribute to the journey of the nation and the country,” Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said in his remarks during the book launching.

According to Pramono, in handling the pandemic the Government continues to strike a balance between addressing health issues and national economic recovery, adding that Indonesia is also one of the countries that has been successful in tackling COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.

“As mentioned many times by Bapak President, he implements the “gas and brake” policy. When the number of COVID-19 cases was high, strict measures were in place, including the social activities restriction (PPKM) policy, and so on. When the rate of COVID-19 started to slow down, economic [activities] were not constrained by restriction. The gas and brake policy serves as the reference for the Government,” he said.

Cabinet Secretary also explained that to evaluate the PPKM implementation and the COVID-19 updates in the country, the Government routinely held limited cabinet meetings during the last two years of the pandemic.

“The Government, led by the President and the Vice President, routinely held a meeting every Monday on 13.30 pm on PPKM evaluation. Therefore, we could monitor every update,” he revealed.

Cabinet Secretary added that the pandemic situation does not prevent the Government from doing structural reforms to shift to a developed Indonesia.

“Currently, our balance of trade is one of those that is experiencing a surplus compared to that of other countries, showing that what have been done by the President, Vice President, and the Cabinet is on the right track,” he added.

Pramono Anung also expressed his appreciation to personnel of Deputy to Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Work Support that have written the book which, will be useful for the journey of the nation and the country.

“The idea of writing this book will surely be useful for the history of the nation. We did not know and never knew that we would experience this situation during the last two years and alhamdulillah we could get through it quite well,” he remarked.

On that occasion, Cabinet Secretary also symbolically presented the book to Head of the National Library Muhammad Syarif Bando and Vice Rector of Trisakti University for Academic Affairs Asri Nugrahanti. The book is also available in the form of e-book on Cabinet Secretariat website. (DND/UN) (AW/EP)