Jakarta –
Before the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages were reopened, a number of high-ranking Muslim countries were competing to lobby Saudi Arabia. These include Malaysia and Turkey. Countries sending Umrah pilgrims are currently competing to lobby the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. They are trying to convince the Saudis that vaccine requirements other than the 4 types of vaccines recognized by the kingdom can be relaxed.
“Some time ago there was a Malaysian official who came to Saudi Arabia before the month of Ramadan, there was the Turkish Foreign Minister. Incidentally, I was on umrah behind me and there was the Turkish Foreign Minister,” said Eko Hartono in the Outspoken program at detik.com, Wednesday (11/8/2021).
Malaysia is known to use Sinovac, AstraZaneca, and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. The last two types of vaccines are also used by the Saudis. In addition, before Ramadan, COVID cases in the neighboring country were quite under control. As a result, Malaysia was not among those who were refused to send Umrah pilgrims by Saudi.
“The policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to ban or prohibit the entry of a country is not carried out in a short time. Say now it is increasing (positive cases) thenbanned, no,” said Eko.
He gave the example of the United States, which is known to be a close friend of Saudi Arabia, in fact it hasbanned because the rate of COVID cases is very high. Some EU countries are also banned.
“So, I’m almost sure Saudi Arabia is also observing, very concerned with the status of COVID in Malaysia. Not because it says it’s closer to Malaysia so it’s allowed while Indonesia is. It’s not like that,” he said.
With the exception of Malaysia, a number of countries that are the largest senders of Umrah pilgrims, such as Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Egypt, and Turkey, are still not permitted. Pilgrims from these countries should get additional vaccines (booster) of the type used by Saudi, namely Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson, and AstraZaneca.
In addition, the congregation will have to undergo a 14-day quarantine in a third country. This will certainly be very burdensome for the congregation because the additional costs that must be incurred are greater than the basic costs.
Therefore, according to Eko Hartono, the prospective Indonesian Umrah pilgrims should be patient again not to force themselves to perform Umrah in the near future. Because, there are still millions of other Indonesian citizens who have not received the vaccination.
(jat/jat)
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