"I want to invite the kiai to protect the people from various types of information and issues that are not true. Many people cannot distinguish between true and false information," Amin noted in a statement on the YouTube account of the Vice President of the Republic Indonesia, Tuesday.
The disinformation is currently about COVID-19, a lot of misleading information, and even grouping people into not believing that the COVID-19 pandemic is real.
"Now it is occurring, including information that COVID-19 is a conspiracy, although this is real. That is why this is called the post truth era, meaning that after the truth, it is disguised with lies," he expounded.
Amin further noted that the influx of information, obtained by the public, especially from social media, was replete with lies, slander, and hoaxes.
"Nowadays, there is a flood of information, some are true; some are not true; some are lies; some are slander; some are hoaxes; and some are contradicting each other. This is all mixed up in the community," the vice president pointed out.
Hence, as a fellow cleric, Vice President Amin has invited all kiai and Islamic religious leaders to jointly protect the public from disinformation about COVID-19.
"My role is as a friend of the kiai, all of the ulamas along with the government should fight in the face of the terrible danger of COVID-19," the vice president stated.
The COVID-19 Task Force’s data on Monday (July 12) indicated that the number of patients having recovered from COVID-19 had risen by 32,615, thereby bringing the total recovery count to 2,084,724 people.
Meanwhile, the number of people that died from exposure to COVID-19 rose by 1,007, bringing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in Indonesia to 66,464.
Meanwhile, 36,267,019 people received the first dose of vaccination, while 15,011,348 individuals were administered the second vaccination. This figure is still far from the national vaccination target of 181,554,465 people.
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Translator: Fransiska, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
