National Police Adds More Mobility Restrictions at 381 Points

INDUSTRY.co.id - The Indonesian National Police (Polri) has taken comprehensive measures regarding the ban on the annual mass exodus (mudik) ahead of Eid al-Fitr 1442 Hijri as well as efforts to control the COVID-19 transmission during the holy month of Ramadan 2021.

According to Chief of the Security Management Agency of the National Police (Kabaharkam Polri) Commissioner-General Arief Sulistyanto, the National Police has increased mobility restriction points across the islands of Java, Bali, and Sumatra.

“The mobility restriction points have been increased from 333 to 381 points, starting from South Sumatra to Bali,” Arief said during the virtual Forum Merdeka Barat 9 (FMB9) media forum “Take care of your family, no mudik“, Wednesday (5/5).

Arief maintained that the National Police will act firmly on those in violation of the mudik ban from 6 to 17 May 2021.

“To support the policy, the National Police has taken several comprehensive measures, including preemptive, preventive, as well as ‘humanist’ law enforcement,” he said.

Arief went on to say that preemptive measure is taken to change the community’s perspective regarding the mudik ban since mudik has become a tradition of Indonesian people a long time ago.

However, he added, it is impossible to carry out the Eid silaturahmi (communal bonds) in this current situation, do it virtually instead.

“These are the reasons we have informed the public so they will understand that it’s not just a ban, but we have much bigger interests,” Arief said.

On preventive measure, he said, the National Police together with relevant institutions has disseminated the implementation of health protocols to the public. In this new era of habits, people cannot live the way they used to be in those ordinary days. The application of health protocols must be strictly enforced. “We will enforce the law, but with ‘humanist’ approaches.”

Arief further revealed three stages carried out by the National Police regarding the mudik ban, including pre-mudik through regional operations, the ban of mudik (restrict predetermined points), and post-mudik (anticipate the backflow).