U.S.-based research suggests conservatism is linked with less concern about contracting coronavirus and less preventative behaviors to avoid infection. Ultimately, these segmental factors combined into a toxic mix that severely constrained Indonesia’s ability to effectively respond to a massive external shock such as COVID-19. This backsliding produced intensifying populist anti-scientism, religious conservatism, religio-political polarisation, corruption and clientelism, as well as assertiveness among anti-democratic actors. Going beyond simple development and regime categories, this article proposes that Indonesia’s COVID-19 response was the result of its specific process of democratic decline in the last decade. With countries poorer and more democratic than Indonesia performing better, however, this explanation is unsatisfactory. But what explains this outcome? It would be easy to attribute Indonesia’s response to its lower middle-income status or its democratic governance structures that lack strong repressive capacity. The government of President Joko Widodo initially ignored the threat, and when it did react, the crisis policies were piecemeal and confusing. There is widespread agreement that compared to most other states in Southeast Asia, Indonesia’s central government has offered a poor response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
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