Become a Strong Country

KOMPAS/ANTONY LEE

The country with the best and worst developments in the 2010-2020 Fragile State Index. This is seen on the fragilestatesindex.org online page

Indonesia\'s resilience in facing economic, political and social pressures continues to improve. We must be able to use this momentum to turn Indonesia into a sustainable country.

Indonesia is one of 10 countries that experienced the most significant improvement in resilience in the past 10 years, according to the 2020 Fragile States Index.

Indonesia\'s ranking rose from 93rd to 96th out of 178 countries with scores down from 70.4 to 67.8. The greater the score, the more vulnerable the country is and the higher the risk of failure. Scores are calculated based on four categories, namely cohesion, economy, politics and social with a total of 12 indicators.

This report does not include the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indonesia has improved in all indicators, except for friction among the elite (factionalized elites), the score for which has not changed, and indicators of group grievances and security forces, the score for which has declined slightly. This report does not include the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also read: Indonesia Moving Away from “Failed State” Status, Good News and a Wake-Up Call

From the indicators that have not improved, special attention must be given to the decline of group grievances, whose score rose from 7.1 in 2018 to 7.4 in 2020. This indicator illustrates the division between communities, mainly based on social or political characteristics, access to services and resources, and inclusion in the political process.

KOMPAS/ANTONY LEE

Map of the Vulnerable Countries Index of 2020. Taken from the fragilestatesindex.org online page.

Looking at past electoral experience, division in society has to do with the role of cyberforces working for politicians and political parties, as reported by Bradshaw and Howard of the University of Oxford (2019). This index helps recognize our challenges. Although the index is improving, many things must be done so that Indonesia can rise from the “warning” to the “sustainable” category.

The pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to rewiden inequality in welfare, increase the number of poor people and create dissatisfaction that can trigger social unrest.

At the same time, we see that social cohesion in society remains strong. The spontaneous emergence of social movements and the opening of public kitchens to help people without waiting for government assistance are among the indications.

This social capital must be managed and developed by providing space for initiatives at the community level. The government must protect all the Indonesian people by ensuring social assistance to those who are in need, in addition to providing working capital assistance for micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs), which account for 90 percent of business activities and the food sector.

KOMPAS/ANTONY LEE

Indonesia’s position in the 2020 Vulnerable Countries Index as taken from the fragilestatesindex.org online page.

For now, the public wants an improvement in the handling of the health crisis. Only by maintaining the credibility of policies and their implementation in handling the current health crisis and its social and economic impacts, we can immediately recover.