Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – RI needs to learn from Brunei in dealing with the corona. At a time when many countries are battling Covid-19, Brunei was able to record zero cases of local transmission.
This country is not too big in terms of area, only 5,765 km² or about twice the area of Jogjakarta which has an area of 3,186 km². Brunei’s population as of 2019 was 433,285, very far compared to Indonesia’s population of 270.6 million in 2019.
With a small area and relatively small population, Brunei imposes strict discipline on its citizens to break the Covid-19 chain.
Citing the East Asia Forum, a researcher named Nadia Azierah Hamdan and William Case from the University of Nottingham Malaysia tried to analyze this. In the article entitled “Behind Brunei’s Covi-19 Success Story”, they presented the country’s strategy of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in fighting the pandemic.
The handling has not only started recently, but has been since the beginning of 2020 when the first Covid-19 spread globally. In January 2020 when the first corona outbreak in the world, Brunei took strict steps to ban travelers from Hubei from entering the country.
Then in February local officials screened arrivals from all countries by conducting temperature checks at entry points.
Covid-19 cases in Brunei were detected on March 9 and began to spread to reach 100 cases within 15 days. This was triggered by the presence of a taklim congregation who visited Malaysia.
When cases arise, Brunei takes firm steps to follow the rules from the World Health Organization (WHO) to maintain social distance and self-isolation for residents infected with the Covid-19 virus.
As a Malay Islamic Monarchy, the Brunei government is considered sensitive to the spiritual needs of its citizens. However, the government took the decision to limit religious spiritual activities.
Researchers said mosques in Brunei were closed and cleaned. Gatherings of more than close family are prohibited throughout Ramadan and during Hari Raya (Idul Fitri).
Meanwhile, the government encourages Bruneians to strengthen and carry out remembrance and tadarus Al-Quran at home while undergoing quarantine,” wrote the researcher.
“As the political and religious leader of the nation, Sultan Bolkiah provides moral leadership to the public. Bolkiah emphasizes the duty of Muslims to follow social distancing guidelines, take precautions, sanitation and multiply their prayers and reflect on the Quran. He also reminded Bruneians that the majority of Muslims, that the virus itself was sent by God,” he explained.
Another key to success in controlling Covid-19 in Brunei is the discipline of the government and its citizens. Since May this year, Bruneians have been operating near normal with the easing of restrictions on mass collection.
Not only the citizens are disciplined, citizens in Brunei don’t even smoke. According to the Minister of Health of Brunei Dato Seri Setia Dr. Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar if tobacco is harmful to health and the nicotine in it is addictive.
“In a global situation still being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has learned from existing research that smokers are at higher risk of contracting a more severe COVID-19 infection, which can be fatal, compared to non-smokers, ” he said quoted from The Star.
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