Social Conflict in Indonesia During the Covid-19 Pandemic

A new report from the NYSEAN partner Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict looks at Indonesia’s response to the COVID pandemic:

Indonesia showed a marked increase in social conflict during the pandemic. Although effective delivery of social assistance by the government and lax enforcement of mobility restrictions cushioned the immediate impact of the crisis, reducing the risk of collective violence and mass protests amid growing economic hardship requires effective resource redistribution policies and a more prudent governance strategy.

Social Conflict in Indonesia During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), tracks the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on social conflict in Indonesia and offers recommendations for mitigating the risk of social unrest in view of a widely anticipated economic downturn.

This report argues that while the Indonesian government has done a fairly successful job at organizing to provide economic aid to marginalized groups through the pandemic, this will not solve all the problems facing Indonesia economically. Indonesia’s quick response to the pandemic has helped to minimize protests targeting lockdown policy or mask mandates, but mass discontent with economic hardship has brought about vigilantism against rising street crime, youth brawls, and confrontations between mass organizations.

On top of this, Indonesia’s new legislation deregulating labor regulation laws to attract investment has only worsened public frustrations with the government. This report argues that to prevent an eventual exacerbation of these tensions into outright violent protest, Indonesia must reorient its policing philosophy and reassess its stance towards the working class, in both the structuring of welfare programs as well as the push to deregulate laws relevant to everyday workers.