The value of parliamentary roles in pandemic crises: the Indonesian case

ABSTRACT

As most state constitutions classify pandemics as state emergencies, the government or executive branch is responsible for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in most countries around the globe. Nonetheless, no nation, including Indonesia, can win the pandemic war without the assistance of other governmental authorities, such as the Parliament. This article argues that because the Indonesian Parliament contributed little to the government’s efforts to combat the pandemic, governments frequently fight pandemics alone, prolonging the crisis and wreaking havoc on the health and economic well-being of society. The legislature’s oversight of the government’s efforts to combat COVID-19 was limited due to two factors. The Indonesian political tradition’s awkward attitude toward confronting the executive is influenced by the country’s long period of authoritarian rule and the fact that most Parliamentarians belong to government alliances. This article concludes that oversight of the government’s efforts to combat the pandemic falls squarely on the shoulders of the legislature.

KEYWORDS:

• Pandemic
• parliament
• government
• oversights
• crisis
• Indonesia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Concerning the Indonesian ‘COVID-19 law,’ as derived from the ‘Perppu’ 2020 on the reallocation of the state budget for pandemic, was appealed to the Constitutional Court by several NGOs representatives. They recognized that the ‘COVID-19 law’ contradicted the 1945 Constitution, granting the government broad authority in utilizing the state budget to combat the pandemic. See (Utami and Halim, 2020).