Waiting for Action from Community Leaders
Many medical personnel complain that regents and administration officials have deliberately sat back from promoting PCR swab tests, only because they are wary about their regency being declared a red zone.
Since Idul Fitri, positive cases of Covid-19 in Bangkalan regency, Madura, have continued to rise. Of the 18 districts in the regency, as of Tuesday (8/6/2021), only two were categorized as yellow zone (low risk) districts, namely Konang and Kokop. There were no green zones (controlled risk).
Four districts were declared red zones (high risk), namely Bangkalan, Arosbaya, Klampis and Geger, while the other 12 districts fell into orange zones.
On Tuesday (8/6) alone, the family cluster in Arosbaya district saw an increase of 70 positive cases. What\'s going wrong in Bangkalan?
The mobility of Bangkalan residents is higher than those in other regencies in Madura. Apart from its geographical location, which is closer to Surabaya on mainland Java, some areas of Bangkalan are also less suitable for agriculture. The condition has caused some residents to be out for work in Surabaya.
Low awareness
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Covid-19 tracing and testing have not been carried out on a massive scale, making it difficult to map out the pandemic spread in Madura.
Such a condition is coupled with people’s low awareness about rising Covid-19 cases. People do feel the economic impact caused by Covid-19, but fall short of taking up the gripping plague as a driver to implement health protocols.
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Upon returning home to Madura on several occasions, I have learned how people are indifferent toward the health protocols the central government is administering insistently. Only about 10 percent of the residents are compliant.
Many medical personnel complain that regents and administration officials have deliberately sat back from promoting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests, only because they are wary about their regency being declared a red zone.
A number of motorcycle riders from Madura Island turned back because they avoided the rapid antigen test at the exit of the Suramadu Bridge, Surabaya, East Java, Monday (7/6/2021). Blocking and checking for motorists from Madura Island to Surabaya has been intensified again due to the increasing number of positive cases of Covid-19 in Bangkalan Regency.
By the end of November 2020, I attended wedding ceremonies in Sumenep and Pamekasan. Ten days after the events, 14 members of the bridal family tested positive for Covid-19. Even then they still refused to take the blame on the gatherings.
The grim picture of the situation can be seen throughout Madura. In daily social interactions, skeptics will always come up with statements that appear to be underestimating the threats of the invisible virus.
“Where is Covid? (We) eat well, okay? Don\'t be afraid. Death is in the authority of the Almighty, not because of Covid," is common statement.
The attitude of regents and officials who do not want their administrative areas to be categorized as orange or red zones contribute to the restricted administering of Covid-19 tracing and tests for suspects.
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Moreover, there is not a single laboratory facility in Madura that meets the requirements to carry out PCR tests for the Covid-19 virus. All samples taken must be shipped to the laboratory in Surabaya with locals governments bearing the cost of the tests undertaking.
People with Covid-19 will feel self-stigmatized. With a regency being in the green zone category, which means there are no Covid-19 patients, the regent sees it as an achievement. But as a result, people affected by Covid-19 in the area are then “exiled” and beset with stigmatization or disgracefulness. In other words, self-stigmatization arises because officials adopt wrong parameter measurements in assessing the administration’s achievements.
Another arising impediment is that regional governments are reluctant to increase the budget allocated for handling the pandemic, causing Covid-19 tracing and tests to run perfunctory.
"Don\'t blame the people because the regent himself doesn\'t want us to do massive Covid-19 tests. In fact, there is a regent in Madura who forbids the residents from undergoing PCR swab tests for fear of public exposure," said a medics at Sumenep Hospital.
Hundreds of motorcycle riders from Madura Island queue to undergo a rapid antigen test at the exit of the Suramadu Bridge, Surabaya, East Java, Monday (7/6/2021).
Not to mention the arrivals of local migrant workers, who had begun to drift home since early 2021 and reached its peak during Idul Fitri holidays. Most of them work in Malaysia and the Middle East. Some work on cruise ships but they have not gone sailing since the pandemic broke out.
It is difficult for us to trace the cruise ship workers who returned home, as to where they had stopped by and whom they had come across on the way home.
With such an attitude showed by the regents and officials, a surge in Covid-19 cases like in Bangkalan is just a matter of time. In fact, cases of death due to Covid-19 had already surfaced as early as June 2020 in Robatal, Sampang regency, but that has not prompted a change in the perceptions of administrations’ officials and community leaders. The promotion of health protocols is lukewarm.
In daily life, Madurese people adhere to a proverb buppak bhebbuk hguru rato (father, mother, teacher and government), which carries a message about the order of loyalty local people must abide. That is, for Madurese, their main obedience is to father, mother, teachers, in this case religious leaders or ulema, only then to the government.
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Madurese strong subscription to religious ethics place clerics, as sources of religious teachings, as the main figures to whom the community must show respect.
However, on the other hand there are umara (government) and blater who have significant role in the social system of Madura. Respecting ulema, umara, and blater falls in the realm of the subsets of Madurese culture.
The three managed to play their respective roles and until the reform era did not interfere with each other, as in the case how they approached bull racing, a traditional spectacle locally known as Karapan sapi.
The races exhibit the dimension of violence, but there have been no open decrees from the clerics who would forbid it. In fact, it is common that to win the races, the bull’s owner will asks for supplication of blessings from ulema.
The government has accommodated and treated karapan sapi as a cultural attraction. Community leaders from these three subcultural structure, namely ulema, umara and blater, have been able to work together in a symbiotic mutualism. However, in this reform era, their roles have begun to overlap.
All regents in Madura are ulema, while blater have emerged to control the trade distribution network and dominated power at the rural level.
Apparatus’ unpreparedness
Madurese societal balance has tipped off due to the pandemic outbreak with uncertainties gripping the community.
The regents with religious backgrounds-- as such being caretakers of pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) – pay less attention on health issue with education and social affairs being the main concern.
Before becoming regents, they as ulema would receive inputs directly from the community, but now being a regent, they cannot do the same because of various pretexts. Inputs, if any, are limited and provided by their aides at administrative branches, who tend to report not in accordance with the real condition of the community. The reports even end up being an "as long as bapak are happy" account.
I suspect that if prevention efforts are not carried out structurally and culturally, a similar case could occur in Sampang regency, which borders Bangkalan.
The society being faced with such a condition, the Covid-19 pandemic broke in and has now remained to afflict for 18 months. I think the unpreparedness of the apparatus and the lack of role of community leaders in promoting Covid-19 awareness have made Madurese people look in limbo. They don\'t know who to ask and trust.
Feeling of disgrace arising from being tested positive for Covid-19 has exacerbated their frustration about the fact that there is no official or community leader to show cares for them.
When community leaders, especially ulema, are not firm against Covid-19, and community is ignorant, a pandemic escalation can occur anytime, like the case in Bangkalan.
Mohammad Bakir
I suspect that if prevention efforts are not carried out structurally and culturally, a similar case could occur in Sampang regency, which borders Bangkalan.
In addition to the proximity of location, many migrant workers also come from Sampang, where a new variant of coronavirus was found to have mutated.
Mohammad Bakir, Senior Journalist
This article was translated by Musthofid.
