Indonesian News Tribun News reports that the region’s government has implemented harsh punishment for citizens who refuse to wear masks: forcing them to dig graves for others who die from the disease.
“There are only 3 gravediggers available at the moment, so I think I could take those other people to paint with them,” said a local official in Gresik, East Java, according to the translation by The Jakarta Post. this can create a deterrent against violations. “
The macabre correctional strategy contrasts sharply with that of the United States, where some states have issued regulations that require citizens to wear masks to curb the pandemic, but there is still no national requirement.
Even these limited demands have been controversial, with protesters in the United States and Europe gathered to protest the use of masks.
This is not the case for Indonesia, which instituted a national mandate to wear masks in public in July, is a reaction to the 3,600 deaths at the time, a figure that has now risen to nearly 9,000.
The punishment of digging a grave is excessive. And Indonesia has a poor human rights record.
But there is a sure schadenfreude, as evidenced through the wide dissemination of history in the global media, by seeing other people who forget the fitness of others who are forced to face the mortality of those others in such a direct way.
“We urge the public to wear a mask in accordance with COVID-19 fitness protocols,” said the east Java police leader, according to the Post.
READ ALSO: Gresik citizens forced to dig graves as punishment for dressing up in a face mask [The Jakarta Post]
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