Sosok.ID – Starting today, Monday (7/9/2020), Malaysia officially prohibits Citizens Indonesia (WNI) entered their country.
The prohibition is allegedly due Indonesia is a country with cases corona virus which to this day is still out of control.
Launch Kompas.com, Indonesia is not the only country whose citizens are barred from entering Malaysia.
Citizens India and Filipina Not even allowed to set foot in the neighboring country for the time being.
As is known, the two countries also have uncontrolled cases of Covid-19 infection.
Worldometers data even shows that India is the second country with the largest corona cases after the United States (US).
Meanwhile, Indonesia and the Philippines are known as the two countries with the highest covid-19 cases in ASEAN.
Regarding the ban, which is effective starting today, the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemenlu) spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah has confirmed.
“The Malaysian government prohibits Long Term Pass holders from the Philippines, Indonesia and India from entering Malaysian territory,” said Faizasyah, Thursday (3/9/2020), quoted from Kompas.com.
Prohibition applies to long-term residence permit holders, students, expatriates, permanent residents, and family members of Malaysians.
On Wednesday (2/9/2020), the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the Malaysian Ambassador to clarify this matter.
International law expert Hikmahanto Juwana suspects that the ban is related to Indonesia, which is still unable to reduce the rate of spread of the corona virus.
He considered Malaysia wanted to prevent transmission by blocking the presence of Indonesian citizens in the area.
“Maybe they think that in the quotation marks the contagion (Covid-19) is higher than other countries,” said Hikmahanto, Sunday (6/9/2020).
Hikmahanto said, the government must ensure how long the ban will take effect, and what impact it will have on Indonesia.
“Of course we are at this time, if indeed it is Malaysia’s sovereignty, we are trying to find out what is the basis for Malaysia to prohibit Indonesian citizens from entering.”
“Is this prohibition for the long term or also includes the short term,” he continued.
In line with Hikmahanto, Head of the Eijkman Amin Subandrio Institute for Molecular Biology suspects that the mutation of the D614G corona virus in India, the Philippines and Indonesia is the cause.
This D614G mutation was also found in Malaysia about two weeks ago, which is feared to have a higher transmission rate.
Amin said that Malaysia seriously considered the discovery of the mutation of the corona virus.
“So it seems that Malaysia is taking it seriously. In fact, from human to human (transmission) there is no research that shows the rate of transmission of the mutation is higher.”
“And from its effect to the severity of Covid-19 patients, it has not been found,” said Amin.
Deputy III of the Presidential Staff Office (KSP) Panutan Sulendrakusuma stated that the ban had no significant impact for Indonesia.
However, this prohibition affects migrant workers, most of whom are said to have returned to their country.
As for the flow of goods in and out, the export and import process between Malaysia and Indonesia will continue as usual.
“Of course we can understand that this is their internal policy.”
“However, if we look for example from economic activity, international trade, for example, export and import, it is still running,” said Panutan.
“For example, in July Malaysia was still in the top six of our export destinations. Likewise from the import side. Malaysia is our seventh largest import source,” he continued.
“What is clear is the existence of several policies of our neighboring countries and that is the right to protect their national security. Indonesia “We must focus on handling the Covid pandemic at home,” he said.
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the D614G mutation from the corona virus