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Abstract

Ever since COVID-19 was announced as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), many democratic countries have faced two challenges: containing COVID-19 and defending democracy. Indonesia is one of the democratic countries, faced with this dilemma of hosting the Simultaneous Local Elections in 270 regions consisting of 9 provinces, 37 cities, and 224 regencies on December 9, 2020, amidst the pandemic. Therefore, the main issue lies in whether the Indonesian government will prioritize controlling the spread of the virus, prioritize sustaining economic and political agenda, or touch upon both problems. This working paper focuses on how Indonesia defended democracy amid COVID-19. The literature review will be utilized to examine how democratic countries responded to the pandemic. This will be followed by an analysis on how difficult the policy-making process is to protect society from COVID-19, especially in a country like Indonesia, and analyze the responses of COVID-19 related policies.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Crisis, Democratic Governance, Public Policy, Policy Responses

Introduction

The first COVID-19 case of an Indonesian citizen was reported to be on March 2, 2020. During the early stage of the pandemic, people thought that the virus would fade away naturally with time. Therefore, Indonesia was already mid-pandemic when policies were applied to contain COVID-19. In the very beginning, Indonesia’s policies consisted of evacuating the Indonesian citizens from Wuhan, China, and designating specific hospitals in Galang Island (Riau Islands province) to only treat COVID-19 patients. The hospital offered services including observation, shelter, and quarantine facilities to control the spread of COVID-19 on Galang Island. The facility could hold 1,000 beds and construction was completed on April 6, 2020. [1]

The policy above shows that the Indonesian government tried to counter the spread of the virus by treating the affected patients in a secluded island. Furthermore, the Indonesian government established a special team to accelerate the efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus under the coordination of the BNPB (Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana/ Indonesia National Board for Disaster Management). As creating a coordinated COVID-19 response between the government, ministerial departments, and other stakeholders was complicated and as new policy dilemmas emerged, maximizing efforts to control the pandemic was found to be challenging.[2]

Bloomberg, a private financial, software, data, and media company based in the US, launched a report called the “Covid Resilience Ranking.” This report follows the development of the COVID-19 responses, fatality rate, number of infected cases, and PCR tests completed for various countries. Reports are released every month, taking into account the social and economic disruptions. The report also gives an overview of the capacity of local health care systems, the impact of virus-related restrictions, and other COVID-19 related issues.

From Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, dynamics of the Covid 19 pandemics in many countries can be observed. This research utilized data that was published in December 2020.[3] ■

[1] Chandra Gian Asmara, “RS Galang untuk Covid-19 Beroperasi, Intip Fasilitasnya!” [Galang Hospital for Covid-19 Operates, Peek at the Facilities!], CNBC Indonesia, April 08 2020,
https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20200408122625-4-150577/rs-galang-untuk-covid-19-beroperasi-intip-fasilitasnya (accessed in 21 December 2020).

[2] Agus Wibowo, “Arahan dan Strategi Ketua Gagus Tugas Penanganan Covid-19 untuk Pemerintah Daerah” [Directions and Strategies of the Chairman of the Covid-19 Handling Task Force for Regional Governments], Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana, March 17 2020, (accessed in 21 December 2020).

[3] Jinshan Hong, Rachel Chang and Kevin Varley, “Best and Worst Places to Be in Covid: Vaccine Not Slowing Deaths,” Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking, December 20, 2020, (accessed on January 11th, 2021 at 10.35)
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-resilience-ranking/ .

■ Sri Nuryanti is currently researcher at the Research Center for Politics at Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI). She is the former Election Commissioner of the Indonesian General Election Commission 2007-2012, where she successfully oversaw the Parliamentary election and Presidential election 2009, as well as local elections from 2007-2012. She is an active participant in various academic activities at the national as well as the international level. She is a council member of APPRA (Asia Pacific Peace Research Association) and IPRA (International Peace Research Association). She is also currently appointed as the Director in charge of the Electoral Research Institute (ERI).

• Typeset by Junghye Suh, Research Associate
    For inquiries: 02 2277 1683 (ext. 207) I jhush@eai.or.kr