Indonesian politician incarcerates lockdown violators in 'haunted houses'

KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): An Indonesian politician who has become so angry with people going against lockdown regulations in his country that she has proposed locking them in a “haunted house”, AFP reported yesterday

Sragen regency head Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati has announced such a policy following the influx of people to the area under her charge after lockdowns in Jakarta and other major Javanese cities.

Sukowati told AFP that some of the visitors are not quarantining themselves for 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“If there’s an empty and haunted house in the village, put people in there and lock them up,” Sukowati said in no uncertain terms.

She asked community leaders “to repurpose abandoned houses that were feared to be haunted”.

The news wire reported that Sepat village picked an abandoned, and supposedly haunted, house and brought in beds placed at a distance and separated by curtains.

The village promptly found three stubborn rule breakers who found themselves having to spend the remainder of their two-week quarantine in the “haunted home”.

The use of “the undead” to scare deeply superstitious Indonesians into adhering to lockdown regulations had already been highlighted last week when the "pocong" or ghosts that are known to haunt graveyards are being used to ‘spook’ people in a central Java village to staying at home.

"Since we set up the pocong roadblock, the environment of the village has become more conducive [to the idea of staying inside]," said the head of the youth volunteer group of Kepuh village in Sukoharjo, Anjar Pancaningtyas.

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