Fadli, Galang Island, Riau Islands – Residents of Galang Island in Riau Islands regency are objecting to the government's plan to turn a former refugee camp on the island into an infectious diseases hospital, and have urged authorities to consult them first before proceeding with such plans.
Barnasin, a community unit (RW) head of Sijantung village in Galang district, said that neither the central government nor the regional administration had informed local residents about the plan.
"I only learned about the plan from the news, that a special hospital will be built in our village. However, I'm [doubtful] about the plan. If we had known about the plan, we would have certainly rejected it," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com on Wednesday.
Barnas added that the residents were open to discussion, but also called on the government to provide adequate medical facilities for them, considering the kind of diseases the hospital would be treating.
The government is floating a plan to turn the former site of the Galang Refugee Camp into a referral hospital for treating COVID-19 patients.
The nation has been battening down since the President announced on Monday Indonesia's first cases of the novel coronavirus, which originated in China in December 2019.
Galang Island is located about 50 kilometers southeast of Batam, with a bridge connecting the two islands.
Galang Refugee Camp, which spans 80 hectares, was used in 1975-1996 to house 250,000 Vietnamese refugees who fled their homeland during the Vietnam War. The war arose from an ideological conflict between communist North Vietnam and socialist South Vietnam, and was exacerbated amid the prolonged Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
More than 12 million South Vietnamese fled after the war ended and sought political asylum in countries such as the US, Canada and Australia, but many were cast ashore on the islands of Indonesia.
The camp was managed by the United Nations during the Vietnam refugee crisis.
Today, Galang Refugee Camp is under management of the Batam Indonesia Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam), and is maintained as a tourist attraction that draws both former refugees and tourists to Batam Island.
Several facilities of the camp have been preserved, including the refugee barracks, a church, a Buddhist temple, a 4-hectare hospital and a cemetery, as well as the wooden boats the refugees used to flee their country and which gave them the moniker, "Vietnamese boat people".
Horticultural crops such as water spinach, carrots, cabbage and ginger are grown on some of the land the refugees had once farmed.
Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto and Public Works and Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono arrived on Wednesday to inspect the site of the former refugee camp.
Basuki said the government would consult with the residents in the area before proceeding with the construction of the hospital, which was expected to take a month to complete.
Hadi said the hospital would have the capacity to treat 1,000 patients with 500 rooms, 2 percent of which would be designated as isolation rooms to comply with the recommended protocol of the World Health Organization (WHO).
To date, Indonesia has two confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection, a mother and daughter. The pair are currently receiving treatment at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital (RSPI) in Jakarta, which has only 11 isolation rooms.
At least 31 suspected cases are under observation at an infectious diseases hospital in Jakarta, while 10 other Indonesians have been diagnosed abroad, including a domestic helper in Singapore and eight crewmen aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. (ars)