IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bindes/v57y2021i3p297-320.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Pandemic as Political Opportunity: Jokowi’s Indonesia in the Time of Covid-19

Author

Listed:
  • Charlotte Setijadi

Abstract

In mid-2021, the Delta strain of the Covid-19 virus caused a second wave of transmissions and deaths in Indonesia at a scale much greater than what was seen in 2020. In this paper, I examine what the Indonesian government’s handling of the Covid crisis in 2021 reveals about the priorities of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as well as his political agenda and attitude towards the country’s democracy, as he strives to cement his legacy. I argue that, while devastating, the Covid-19 pandemic has given Jokowi the opportunity to push through long-planned economic and political reforms. Furthermore, I contend that, under the guise of promoting social and political stability in the time of Covid, Jokowi has also allowed for further democratic regression in Indonesia through laws that restrict freedom of speech and through the further empowerment of the military and intelligence agencies in civilian life. This paper ends with an examination of Jokowi’s persistently high popularity rating and the discourse surrounding the rumoured push for a constitutional reform that would allow for a third-term Jokowi presidency.

Suggested Citation

  • Charlotte Setijadi, 2021. "The Pandemic as Political Opportunity: Jokowi’s Indonesia in the Time of Covid-19," Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(3), pages 297-320, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bindes:v:57:y:2021:i:3:p:297-320
    DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2021.2004342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00074918.2021.2004342
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00074918.2021.2004342?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oki Rahadianto Sutopo & Gregorius Ragil Wibawanto & Ariane Utomo & Annisa R Beta & Novi Kurnia, 2022. "The Mode of Reflexive Practice among Young Indonesian Creative Workers in the Time of COVID-19," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 878-895, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bindes:v:57:y:2021:i:3:p:297-320. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CBIE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.