The quality of Indonesia’s COVID-19 legislation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have proclaimed a state of emergency following their constitutional provisions. Consequently, in response to the outbreak, several countries resorted to utilising the authority vested in their respective governments by the Constitution or preexisting legislation about disasters. Indonesia subsequently responded to extensive criticism from domestic and international experts for its delay in formally declaring a nationwide state of emergency in response to the outbreak. In the initial year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the country experienced significant societal and economic consequences due to inadequate crisis governance. This article argues that the government’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak was ineffective in preventing the Pandemic’s rapid spread and its adverse impacts on society and the economy. This situation was due to perceived poor quality content and underlying principles of the country’s legislation. Consequently, the insufficiency became apparent in the inconsistent strategies employed by both central and local governments in tackling the Pandemic, a need for more expertise among institutional personnel, inadequate allocation of resources for crisis management, limited collaboration among government agencies, and the vulnerability of law enforcement. This article proposes that Indonesia enhance its crisis management legislation to establish a comprehensive framework for the supervision and execution of various outbreak management strategies, including those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.