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Construction began on Sunday on a hospital in Cirebon that will be the first in the country with no class distinction in terms of the rooms offered.

Ribka Tijptaning, a national lawmaker from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the project was meant to “restore the idealism of doctors.”

“This is for doctors to start caring for humanity again, to leave behind the issues of political, racial, social and economic background,” said Ribka, who sits on the House of Representatives’ health oversight commission.

Once completed, the state hospital will have 100 beds, in wards equivalent to existing third-class wards.

At the moment, Cirebon only has 428 third-class beds, and a total of 944 hospital beds for more than two million people.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, the PDI-P chairwoman, said it was regrettable that the “noble mission” of building a hospital without class distinctions was being greeted by some as a “communist endeavor.”

“It’s sad that some people in the intelligence community are trying to hamper the plan on the grounds that it is communist,” she said during the ground-breaking ceremony.

“For God’s sake, this is the 21st century and people still talk that way. This is for the health of the people.”

She added that the hospital was being built to address the lack of health care, in particular for local fishing communities.

“So if they get ill, they don’t have to run the risk of seeking treatment in the city, only to be turned away,” Megawati said.

The hospital, in Cirebon’s Gebang Kilir village, will be built on half a hectare of land donated by the district administration.

“Once it’s finished, please consider it yours,” Megawati told the crowd of residents at Sunday’s event.

Sumina, a resident of a nearby fishing village, welcomed the hospital. She said one of her children had died because of a lack of proper health care.

“People should never be turned away when bringing a sick child in for treatment,” she said.