The enforcement of the mudik ban in the Greater Jakarta Area will be monitored by local neighborhood or community units, an official has said, as Indonesia enters day two of banning the annual Eid homecoming tradition.
Indonesian officials have emphasized that all kinds of mudik are banned throughout Indonesia from May 6 to May 17 – and mudik within urban agglomeration regions like the Greater Jakarta Area is no exception.
The Greater Jakarta Area, locally known as Jabodetabek, includes three bordering regencies of Bekasi, Tangerang, and Bogor, and five adjacent cities, including Depok and South Tangerang. Other urban agglomerations in the country include Bandung Raya and Yogyakarta Raya.
With millions regularly commuting between the municipalities, the question of how the ban will be enforced has recently surfaced.
Wiku Adisasmito, Indonesia's COVID-19 task force spokesman, said that mobility within an agglomeration region is still permitted during the ban period "for urgent and non-mudik purposes."
Therefore, though there is technically a mudik ban in the Greater Jakarta Area, one can still travel between Jakarta and Tangerang, for example, as long as their journey is unrelated to mudik.
If you're wondering how on Earth authorities will distinguish between mudik and non-mudik travels, there's really no concrete answer to that, though an official did offer this explanation:
"Monitoring will be done by screening from local residents and regional governments to the level of neighborhood and community units (RT/RW)," Transport Ministry spokeswoman Adita Irawati said yesterday.
If you're still confused, don't worry because you're really not alone, as even Tangerang Mayor Arief R Wismansyah said just last night that he's baffled.