From Health Crisis to Crisis of Governance? The Dynamics of COVID-19 Policy Responses in Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed numbers of unprecedented challenges for countries around the world. Indonesia is no exception. This paper will discuss how the Indonesian government overcomes COVID-19 by identifying the policies taken by the government in responding to the pandemic crisis. This article also to explain to what extent the health crisis has triggered the crisis of governance, which mainly showed by lack of coordination among government agencies. The data to develop this article were obtained from media articles and reports from the national and international institutions and agencies. This article is organized into the following sections. The introductory section provides a brief overview of the aspects discussed related to the emergence of governance crisis as an implication of the health crisis that occurred due to the COVID-19. The second part provides an overview, in what ways the health crisis has caused several events that indicate a governance crisis, and how to overcome it. The third section describes the challenges of developing effective pandemic crisis policies, particularly to balance between health and economic interests. The fourth section explains government's response to bridging the health and economic dilemma, by explaining various social policies. The article closes with a conclusion that shows the lessons-learned of handling the pandemic crisis in Indonesia.