Concurrency as crisis decision-making governance: Lessons from Indonesia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

This research extends the centralization–decentralization dichotomy in the crisis decision-making literature by offering an alternative lens of concurrency. It argues that centralization and decentralization can be concurrently employed to respond effectively to a crisis that overlaps administrative jurisdiction and requires strong coordination. However, the merits of concurrency must not be overstated as it can also lead to institutional complexity during a crisis if not carefully crafted. Examining qualitatively the case of Indonesia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this research finds that concurrency has raised national-subnational tension which compromised effective response in the initial period of the crisis. The tension was due to the long delay on the part of the national government in the initial period of the crisis, leading subnational governments to respond conflictingly. This research concludes that concurrency can be effective, but requires a clear division of and consistent implementation of competencies between actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Crisis decision-making
• concurrency
• centralization
• decentralization
• Indonesia
• COVID-19

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to two anonymous reviewers for critical comments and suggestions on previous versions of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 https://covid19.go.id/ (accessed 07/18/2021)

2 Even with the combination of several keywords, not all items are relevant. Therefore, only several items with the highest relevance were selected.

3 https://nasional.tempo.co/read/1313016/terawan-sebut-doa-jadi-salah-satu-alasan-indonesia-bebas-covid-19/full&view=ok

4 https://humas.polri.go.id/2020/03/21/kapolri-keluarkan-maklumat-kawal-kebijakan-pemerintah-cegah-penularan-covid-19-ini-isinya/

5 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/03/21/covid-19-anies-urged-to-impose-more-aggressive-calculated-lockdown.html; https://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2020/03/20/11082501/berbagai-kebijakan-pemprov-dki-hadapi-covid-19-dalam-sepekan-terakhir?page=2

6 https://fajar.co.id/2020/03/26/papua-lockdown-lukas-enembe-transportasi-barang-tetap-masuk/

7 https://regional.kompas.com/read/2020/04/17/11274441/tolak-lockdown-gubernur-maluku-murad-berlakukan-pembatasan-berskala-regional?page=2

8 https://depok.pikiran-rakyat.com/jawa-barat/pr-09359043/rahmat-effendi-gunakan-isolasi-kemanusiaan-untuk-perangi-virus-corona-di-kota-bekasi?page=3

9 https://health.grid.id/read/352081610/susul-tegal-dan-tasik-juga-papua-toli-toli-ikut-terapkan-local-lockdown?page=all

10 https://medan.tribunnews.com/tag/medan-lockdown-terbatas; https://www.gatra.com/detail/news/477455/kesehatan/medan-berlakukan-cluster-isolasi-melanggar-diganjar-sanksi

11 https://www.suara.com/otomotif/2020/03/27/110935/terapkan-local-lockdown-covid-19-surabaya-tutup-dua-ruas-jalan; https://jatim.suara.com/read/2020/03/30/150537/stop-press-kota-surabaya-bersiap-lockdown

12 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/14/covid-19-govt-calls-for-regional-budgets-to-be-reallocated-to-fight-pandemic.html

13 https://www.binghamton.edu/political-science/covid-response/index.html

14 An online interview with a staff member of the Office of the President on May 6, 2020

15 An online interview with an official of the Ministry of Home Affairs, on June 9, 2020.

16 https://en.tempo.co/read/1326082/jokowis-large-scale-social-restriction-annuls-lockdown-option; https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/04/14/21334871/tetapkan-kebijakan-covid-19-pemda-perlu-perhatikan-pemerintah-pusat

17 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/14/up-to-9-million-people-to-fall-into-poverty-unemployment-as-covid-19-hits-sri-mulyani.html

18 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/18/smrc-survey-finds-local-govts-rated-higher-for-covid-19-response-than-central-govt.html

19 https://www.liputan6.com/regional/read/4245795/survei-psbb-bandung-warga-lebih-takut-kehilangan-pekerjaan-daripada-virus-corona

20 An online interview with officials from the State Secretariat and the Office of the President, on May 8, 2020.

21 An online interview with officials of Papua and Papua Barat Government, on June 9, 2020.

22 https://beritabeta.com/news/ragam/tetap-lakukan-lockdown-dua-kepala-daerah-di-papua-tolak-keputusan-presiden/

23 https://republika.co.id/berita/qabsbt428/kebijakan-pusat-kerap-tumpang-tindih-dengan-kebijakan-daerah

24 https://www.setneg.go.id/baca/index/pentingnya_kerja_sama_pemerintah_pusat_dan_daerah_dalam_penanganan_covid_19

25 Coronavirus: Germany is no longer a role model | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 07.12.2020