Mosques in Jakarta Did Not Cancel Friday Prayers Despite Authorities’ Appeal

Before 2 March 2020, Indonesia was a miracle country: despite being the fourth most populated country in the world, it has zero COVID-19 cases.

Maybe it was God’s will, but anyways.

Fast forward to today, and the country now has 369 cases, and with a whopping 32 deaths.

As you probably know by now, the fatality rate of 8.6% isn’t consistent with the global ratio, so there could have been more undetected cases.

And if I were to pen more of such articles, I presume there would be even more, because…

Mosques in Jakarta Did Not Cancel Friday Prayers Despite Authorities’ Appeal

Anies Baswedan, the Governor of Jakarta, has told people to cancel Friday prayers for two weeks to curb the spread of the virus.

Over in Indonesia, the capital and largest city in the country has the most number of confirmed cases and deaths: as of yesterday, 215 cases were from Jakarta, and 18 of the cases has died.

And it’s not just Friday prayers, of course; any gatherings at any place of worship should be cancelled, and this includes Sunday masses by Christians.

But unfortunately, as it’s been proven again and again, human beings just can’t follow instructions.

A Straits Times journalist in Jakarta spotted that people were still gathering in mosques for Friday prayers, though to be fair it wasn’t as crowded as it used to be.

A mosque is, however, full because another nearby mosque was closed.

A 15-year-old teen even said, “Muslims should not be afraid of coronavirus, going to a mosque. If we get infected (at a mosque) and die, we die nobly.”

To the 15-year-old: you might have strong immune system and don’t mind dying even if you want to die, but once you get home and hug your grandparents, GG to them.

But why are people breaking the law?

Well, technically, they aren’t.

Yet.

An Appeal and Not an Order

During the appeal, Mr Anies has mentioned that this isn’t “an order” but a moral call. He said, “If you want to keep others safe, to keep yourself safe, act responsibly. Acting responsibly is to stay home, to do prayers at home.”

And guess what?

It might be an order soon.

Now an Emergency

Hours after that, Jakarta declares emergency for two weeks.

Now, what does that mean?

It means the Government would have full power, without relying on just the laws, to impose whatever restrictions or whatnots due to a disaster.

And God knows what they’ll do next.

So, my dear fellow Singaporeans: follow the instructions and appeals by the authorities. If not, God knows what’ll happen next.