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3 January 2021
Author: Liam Gammon, ANU
How do you oversee one of the world’s worst outbreaks of COVID-19, ram through unpopular economic reforms during a recession and end up retaining the sort of approval ratings most democratic leaders would walk across coals for? Ask Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, who according to most rules of political gravity ought to have had a tough 2020. Instead, what stood out in Indonesia’s pandemic year was the resilience of the political status quo amid an ‘endless first wave’ of COVID-19.
Indonesia’s decentralised government, large informal economy, high rates of smoking and non-communicable disease, and under-resourced health care system meant that the country was going to be highly vulnerable to COVID-19 no matter who was in charge. But Indonesia has performed worse than many countries at similar levels of development, due in no small part to a government response that was focussed more on politics than public health.