Policies and Social Advantages toward a New Normal: A Case Study of Handling the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly negative impacts on people’s lives and has challenged national leadership to take necessary measures to solve it. The Indonesian government has been confronted with issues such as health services, case detection, the financial capacity of the state, and the decline of economic activity. This study aimed to examine the policies and social advantages of “the new normal” as a case study of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia. This was a qualitative study using primary and secondary data. The study showed that the government’s responses were ineffective and insufficient for preparing contingency measures. Poor coordination between central and regional governments has also been observed as a public concern. The central government decided to implement a large-scale social distancing policy instead of imposing a total lockdown due to its massive financial burden on the government. While making the policies, the central government was concerned more with political and economic considerations and prohibited regional governments from imposing local lockdown policies, unless permitted by the central government. This situation allegedly resulted in substandard protection of the people from the pandemic. The central government’s budgeting policy also failed to put more emphasis on the public health services because the budget for the health sector was lower than the budget for economic recovery and social assistance. However, notwithstanding the government’s unproductive policies in handling the pandemic, Indonesian people have mutual assistance culture as a social advantage. Through such social capital, people were driven to help each other, especially regarding social and economic assistance to the affected people. Contrarily, mutual awareness may have driven people to refrain from doing activities in public areas and to stay at home to stop the spread of COVID-19. It boosted the social endurance of the people in dealing with the pandemic toward a new normal.