In coping with the pandemic that is spreading quickly, several democratic governments, including Indonesia, have introduced policies and carried out actions that go against democratic principles.
By
Azyumardi Azra
·5 minutes read
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted economy, social-culture and religion. In coping with the pandemic that is spreading quickly, several democratic governments, including Indonesia, have introduced policies and carried out actions that go against democratic principles.
As a result, the Covid-19 pandemic has also caused the acceleration of a decline in democracy. Now, more and more experts have said that due to Covid-19, democracy is not just experiencing a decline or backsliding but suffering a recession.
Democracy has globally suffered a setback in the past two decades.
According to several institutions that monitor democracy, such as the Stockholm-based International IDEA, the New York-based Freedom House, the Democracy Index and The Economist Intelligence Unit 2006-2019, democracy has globally suffered a setback in the past two decades.
Democracy has swept many authoritarian countries with waves of political and social freedom. However, in a short time, disappointment has arose because democracy has failed to establish a clean and effective government that could improve the welfare of citizens.
For this reason, an authoritarian state with a single party system, such as the People\'s Republic of China (PRC), which has phenomenally succeeded in achieving economic, scientific-technological and socio-cultural progress, becomes more tempting. More and more countries and governments view the PRC political system as an alternative democratic system.
Now, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the success of the PRC government in controlling the spread of Covid-19 through total lockdown in Wuhan is also a showcase of the success of non-democratic policies. Many democratic governments see the PRC-style authoritarianism policy as the right step though
It violates various democratic principles.
Kompas newspaper, since the end of May, has repeatedly published in-depth reports about the Covid-19 pandemic which could worsen democracy. A pandemic can be a barrier to strengthening democracy, which is one of the mandates of reform. Moreover, in recent years, the decline of democracy has increased (Kompas, 22/5/2020).
In recent years, a number of international institutions monitoring and strengthening democracy have also seen the decline of Indonesia\'s democracy. Once praised as the third largest democracy in the world, Indonesia has fallen from full blown democracy to flawed democracy or even illiberal democracy.
The Indonesian democracy has suffered a decline, among other things, because of the diminishing freedom of citizens to aspire and express. It also becomes an "illiberal" democracy because of the increasingly narrowing of the freedom of citizens to express their opinions, including those that displease the authorities and political elites.
This symptom is seen from the increasing number of residents who have to deal with the police and the judiciary. They are accused of violating the law by spreading statements or information that is considered defamation using the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (UU ITE)
At the beginning of the pandemic, the decline of democracy was evident from the issuance of a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) No. 1/2020 on State Financial Policy and Financial System Stability for Handling the Covid-19 Pandemic. The Perppu that was approved as Law No. 2/2020 gave an extra authority to the government to issue a financial policy to support pandemic mitigation. With such a law, the government cannot be controlled, disputed and prosecuted.
Another indicator of the decline of the democracy is the adoption of a bill into law by the House of Representatives (DPR) without involving civil society. The precedent began with the enactment of Law No. 19/2019 which revised Law No. 30/2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
During the pandemic, besides accepting Perppu No. 1/2020 into Law No. 2/2020, the House also passed Law No. 7/2020 on controversial mining law (Minerba).
The House is also preparing to ratify several other bills, including the controversial copy right bill. They may also not involve the civil society. The lack of public reaction makes the DPR feel safe, as if there is no need for the DPR to consult and listen to the public.
The most recent indicator of setbacks is what Kompas refers to as "Silencing Damages the Democracy" (Kompas, 2/6/2020). This case is related to silencing through intimidation by certain parties against the organizer and speakers of a discussion titled "The Issue of the President\'s Dismissal in the Middle of the Pandemic Judging from the State Administration System" which was planned to be held on 29 May 2020.
The discussion was cancelled. The police was not serious in investigating the perpetrators of intimidation. The head of the public relations of the police, Inspector General Argo Yuwono, said, the police had conducted an investigation, but needed a report to handle this case (31/5/2020). This situation makes some people suspicious of discrimination in law enforcement.
The police was not serious in investigating the perpetrators of intimidation.
Although Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD had asked the police to investigate the perpetrators of intimidation, there was no sign, let alone instructions "from above" that could make the police move.
The indicators of setbacks are recorded in the democracy monitoring records. V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute, Sweden, for example, notes that Indonesian democracy is at a moderate risk of experiencing backsliding during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia’s survey titled "Public Perception of Handling Covid-19; Economic Performance and Its Political Implications ”, which was launched on 7 June 2020 showed that only 49.5 percent of the public were satisfied with the performance of Indonesia\'s democracy. In February 2020, 75.6 percent of respondents expressed satisfaction with the performance of democracy.
Seeing this development, Indonesia\'s democracy needs to be consolidated again. Civil society and democracy advocacy institutions must close ranks. There is no need to wait until the Covid-19 pandemic ends. The restoration of the democracy must be carried out before the democratic recession continues to deteriorate in this country.
AZYUMARDI AZRA, History Professor at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN Jakarta).