Fixing Covid-19 Governance
Indonesia is a constitutional state, not a discretionary state. It is only proper that the Covid-19 strategic command is held by those institutions and leaders that have the appropriate authority and portfolios.
“We know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring people back to life.” –Nana Akufo-Addo, President of Ghana
This statement of the President of Ghana deserves to be a subject of reflection for us all.
All efforts and steps taken by government, from the central government down to villages and communities, should be focused on putting an end to the spread of Covid-19 so our economy will again grow. Any measures that do not focus on stopping transmission of the virus will only worsen the nation’s economic and social condition.
Therefore, the governance of covid-19 control and management must be immediately improved because the pandemic response depends highly on interministerial and interinstitutional (K/L) coordination as well as uniformity across the central, provincial and regency/municipal administrations.
Governance steeped in discretion
So far, the government’s response has been mostly at the discretion of the President and has paid less heed to the several relevant laws that govern Covid-19 control and management. Discretion can be used only in the absence of binding rules or when the existing rules do not provide clear stipulations.
Several instances of the central government’s discretionary approach frequently have not been executable in the regions, because they are contrary to and asynchronous with the other laws in force.
Also read:
> Preventing the Resurgence of Covid-19 Cases
> Dealing With COVID-19-Related Hoaxes
I once wrote “Saving Covid-19 Funds” in this daily (12/6/2020), but it seems the government has remained considerably negligent in the utilization and supervision of the Covid-19 funds worth over Rp 1.5 quadrillion. According to a preliminary partnership assessment, a number of violations have been found among officials and private circles, comprising ministers and institutional heads, governors, the presidential special staff, regional secretaries, regents, state-owned enterprises, employees, the heads of regional institutions (OPD), technical executive units, districts and villages, village consultative bodies, secretaries and treasurers, the heads of hamlets and neighborhood/community units (RT/RW), as well as private parties (bridge project report, partners).
In brief, violations have occurred at all levels across the country. The case of Social Affairs Minister Juliari Batubara is a concrete example of the crime of using the Covid-19 funds that clearly involved the executive, legislative and private circles that benefited from the village apparatus in a structured way. Regrettably, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) did not properly follow up this case after it was exposed, so the network was not traced thoroughly.
Besides the issues of transparency and accountability, the KPK’s preliminary study also found that the determination of the Covid-19 budget allocations for relevant components was not based on comprehensive calculations and it resulted in inaccurate targeting.
The governance of the Covid-19 response has mostly overlooked the principles outlined in Law No.6/2018 on Health Quarantine to cause difficulty in its implementation in the field due to presidential discretion that has muddled the legal basis. Regarding terminology, the government has not adhered to the regulation because the Health Quarantine Law only uses the terms isolation, home quarantine, hospital quarantine, regional quarantine and large-scale social restrictions.
These terms are precisely defined in Article 1 of the Health Quarantine Law, and they are clearer and easier to understand than the terms created under the government’s discretion, such as self-isolation, public activity restrictions (PPKM) for Java-Bali, micro PPKM, strict micro PPKM, emergency PPKM and level 4 PPKM.
These terms, while unknown to the law, are not clearly defined either, so they need extra effort to be understood by the public. Oddly, all sanctions handed down for violating the various restrictions refer to the Health Quarantine Law, but the government has not followed the terminology used in the law so as to leave behind the impression of behaving “as one pleases”.
Also read:
> Lessons from Surges in Covid-19 Cases
Neither has the government been consistent in assigning and appointing officials to take charge of the Covid-19 response.
From the start of the pandemic up to the present, the Health Minister seems to have been sidelined in the Covid-19 pandemic response. On several occasions, the President apparently gave more prominence to the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and other ministries in handling the Covid-19 response than the Health Minister, especially in the first year of the pandemic until health minister Terawan Agus Putranto was replaced.
Budi G. Sadikin, who replaced Terawan as Health Minister, was expected to take over command of the Covid-19 response, but his role has been marginal so far. The President even transferred commande over Covid-19 prevention to Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut B. Pandjaitan, whose office has no direct connection to infectious diseases. Bear in mind that the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister only governs the ministries of energy and mineral resources, public works and housing, transportation, environment and forestry, investment coordinating and tourism and creative economy, none of which have direct connection to public health issues.
This error was then followed by the appointment of Coordinating Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto to head the PPKM implementation in regions outside Java and Bali, whereas the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister has authority over the ministries of finance, manpower, industry, trade, agriculture, agrarian and spatial affairs, state-owned enterprises, and micro, small and medium enterprises, which obviously have no direct relation to health issues.
For that reason, the appointments of Luhut and Airlangga not only breaches the ministries’ portfolio, and at the same time also indicates that the President does not regard the pandemic as a public health issue, but rather as an economic issue.
This error must be corrected because, pursuant to the Health Quarantine Law, the official with the greatest responsibility over pandemic control is the Health Minister. Improving this important so the state works in accordance with the law instead of issuing polices based on excessive discretion that causes difficulty in coordination between regencies/municipalities and provincial administrations.
Also read:
> Consistency in Fighting Covid-19
> Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout for Children to Begin Soon
Essentially, the Covid-19 pandemic is a public health issue, not an economic issue. Without public health recovery, economic growth is inevitably beyond our control. The pattern of dishonest reports that reduce the number of infected people and cut out the number of deaths will also only exacerbate economic decline.
Reordering momentum
The time has come for us to fix governance of the Covid-19 response in line with the law and the principle of good governance in public administration. The improvements can begin by treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a public health issue instead of an economic issue. This paradigm shift will change all priorities of the Covid-19 response in keeping with the Health Quarantine Law.
This change in strategy should be followed by replacing and transferring command over the Covid-19 response to the Health Minister or the Coordinating Human Development and Culture (PMK) Minister as the coordinator of the ministries of health, social affairs, religious affairs, education, culture, research and technology (Dikbudristek), villages, disadvantaged regions and transmigration, and women’s empowerment and child protection.
I am very convinced that the “duo” of the Coordinating PMK Minister and the Health Minister will be capable of leading the war on Covid-9 because the two ministries both govern health, social affairs and humanitarian affairs. Specifically, the Coordinating PMK Minister is appropriate to take the helm because Covid-19 entails the need to educate the public against hoaxes and misinformation, often as part of religious sermons, which affect public discipline and compliance with the health protocols.
The Coordinating PMK Minister can also request the Religious Affairs Minister and Dikbudristek Minister to cooperate with interfaith leaders, religious organizations, ulema and influential preachers to straighten out any misleading information that is in circulation.
The other rational choice is to transfer command of the war on Covid-19 to the “quartet” of the Coordinating PMK Minister, Health Minister, Coordinating Political, Law and Security (Polhukam) Minister and Home Minister. These four have the relevant ministerial portfolios as stipulated by law, and control the masses and networks across the country.
Indonesia is a constitutional state, not a discretionary state. It is only proper that the Covid-19 strategic command is held by those institutions and leaders that have the appropriate authority and portfolios.
The Coordinating Polhukam Minister, as the coordinator of the Indonesian Military and the National Police, can focus on supervising public compliance with the health protocols, while the Home Minister can concentrate on Covid-19 preparedness among provincial and regency/municipal administrations so as to minimize fluctuations in budget allocations and absorption in the regions. The quartet will also be effective in consolidating all government and public elements, because they are accustomed to communicating with informal leaders at the grassroots. They certainly need to be supported by other K/Ls, especially the ministries of finance, manpower and industry, because Covid-19 very much affects economic life as well as formal and informal workers.
Especially with regard to the Finance Minister, the amount of the Covid-19 funds for distribution and allocation should be based on the real needs of the public, because the initial findings of the KPK Monitoring Team has found that many allocations were not targeted properly. In addition, the use of the funds should also be tightly controlled to prevent any reoccurrence of misappropriation.
To this end, the Finance Ministry should cooperate with the Development Finance Comptroller, the KPK and the National Public Procurement Agency to draw up a “Complete Guide on the Use of the Covid-19 Funds”, as Law No. 2/2020 on Financial Policies and Financial System Stability for the Covid-19 Pandemic Funds does not provided a sufficient guide for K/Ls and regional administrations that are slow to execute policies.
Indonesia is a constitutional state, not a discretionary state. It is only proper that the Covid-19 strategic command is held by those institutions and leaders that have the appropriate authority and portfolios.
Laode M. Syarif, Executive Director, Partnership for Governance Reform (Kemitraan).
This article was translated by Aris Prawira.