A local politician on Indonesia’s Java Island who simply got fed up with his recalcitrant people who keep breaching self-isolation and quarantine rules has resorted to locking violators in an abandoned dilapidated house by way of mandatory quarantine.
According to Odditycentral.com, Kusdinar Untung Yuni Sukowati, the head of Sragen regency came up with the idea of taping into the locals’ fear of ghosts as a way to deal with an influx of newcomers in the area.
Due to the lockdowns in the capital Jakarta and other major cities, Sragen has started seeing quite a lot of people coming in, many of whom completely disregard the rule to self-isolate themselves for 14 days as recommended by health experts.
Kusdinar then thought it wise to start putting offenders in abandoned houses locals believe are haunted.
“If they disobey self-isolation orders, several villages have asked for my permission to quarantine them in an abandoned elementary school or abandoned houses. I gave my permission. If need be, they should be locked inside — in a haunted house if necessary. But we’d still feed them and monitor them,” he said.
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Reports say officials in Sepat village, for example, chose a long-abandoned house in the community believed to be haunted and turned it into a quarantine centre for rule-breakers where three people have been ordered to spend 14 days there.
Also, in Plupuh village, a similar abandoned house located in the middle of rice paddy was chosen for quarantining self-isolation violators and two people have been confined to ghostly house so far.
“Two Plupuh residents agreed to self-isolate but they violated the order. So they were locked inside an abandoned haunted house. Had they obeyed their order they wouldn’t have been locked in there,” the Sragen regent said, according to Coconuts Jakarta.