QUESTIONING COVID-19 A PANDEMIC TRIGGERS CONFLICT STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY

Determination of Corona Virus Disease 19, or often called Covid-19, becomes a pandemic that has significant implications in all aspects of the social life of people around the world. Starting from Wuhan, Covid-19 spread to various countries so quickly due to the method of spread from human to human. Statistics show that Covid-19 patients in Indonesia touched 28,818 with 8,892 cases recovering and 1,721 dead. In the Indonesian context, Covid-19 was first detected in Jakarta in March 2020. The trajectory post-infection by Indonesia by Covid-19 reflects a situation that is quite alarming. This can be seen from the invalid information bomb, ambiguous public figures' arguments to policy-laden determination of interests.

The author certainly agrees that to get past the pandemic, all stakeholders should work together to build solidarity and optimism due to the crisis implications of the pandemic. However, on the other hand it is important for writers to remain critical and look at a situation from multiple perspectives to avoid the birth of new negative implications. This relates to the establishment of policies in Indonesia to deal with Covid-19 both at the central and regional levels, where in the implementation it presents pros and cons in the community. Among them are the lockdown policy is not stipulated, the confusion of health protocols at the beginning of the pandemic, the establishment of CBSS which has an impact on termination of employment and the government has stated that tourism is still safe.

In the context of Bali, hundreds of people who depend on life in the tourism sector have experienced reduced working hours to termination of employment which has resulted in reduced income in this pandemic era. In the midst of this crisis various government policy-making, by some communities, it was felt that instead of helping the community it was considered less concerned with affected communities and tended to pocket a shallow social impact analysis. Gendo and Ari Astina are the two activists who are the most active in criticizing various government policies, especially Bali, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policy that received the most attention was the ambiguity in the implementation of the ogoh-ogoh chanting in the context of the Nyepi holiday and the ambiguity in the permit for the implementation of religious rites involving the wider community. First, the ambiguity in the implementation of the ogoh-ogoh movement in the context of the Nyepi holiday occurred in March 2020. The confusion at this level lies in the circular of the Governor of Bali concerning licensing of the changing ogoh-ogoh permits. At first the ogoh-ogoh chanting was permitted only in the area of ​​the indigenous village concerned (Riza, 2020). If this condition is realized, of course it will still cause a crowd because there is no one area in Bali that is not part of the customary village area. Finally, on March 19, 2020, a circular was issued stating that the ogoh-ogoh chanting was totally banned (Mustofa, 2020). This change seems to reap the pros and cons among the people because they feel confused to cause conflict and there are people who are imprisoned due to provoking a statement of disappointment on social media. Even so on March 20, 2020, there were still some ogoh-ogoh pengarakan at some point.

Secondly, the establishment of a Community Activity Restriction (PKM) policy that was held by the Denpasar City government. This policy was established in May 2020, where several points of the Denpasar City border were guarded by law enforcement and self-help from the community to check every community that would enter the Denpasar area (Adiwijaya, 2020). If the community is going to enter the Denpasar area, they must complete a permit with the interests of entering the Denpasar area. The new social implications actually occur because there are crowds at the border location posts. Security officers struggled with the public on the highway that would enter the Denpasar area without adequate Personal Protective Equipment (Artaya, 2020). Traffic has become jammed and there is a build-up due to the number of people entering the Denpasar area with an uneven number of officers. Eventually this caused criticism and conflict from some communities due to the neglect of social impact analysis.

Through some of the policies above it can be seen that this pandemic has become a new arena of conflict between diverse perspectives of the people. Although it did not end up being violent, this conflict was felt primarily on social media. For example on social media Instagram there are several accounts that upload news about government policy in the context of Covid-19. The comments column becomes the realm of the people contesting arguments related to the pros and cons with the determination of related policies. For example in the @infodenpasar account on May 15, 2020, uploading PKM activities in several locations actually received criticism from the community because it caused the crowd and APD used by the authorities to be inadequate. On the other hand, the @Gendovara account also actively voiced criticism of PKM policy. This policy is considered to have a shallow social impact analysis that increases the risk of the spread of Covid-19. Even so, in the eyes of Laclau and Mouffe, in a democratic system, the existence of a counter-government perspective is a refinement of the democratic system itself. This is due to how the democratic system provides space for non-majority perspectives and even anti-democratic perspectives. This condition is a homework for the democratic system to treat the space containing multiperspectives so that there is no domination of one perspective over another perspective. In other words, when read using the perspective of The Political existence of conflicts that occur in the community in addressing policies related to Covid-19, reflecting the climate of a democratic system running well and inhabited by pluralism (Mouffe, 2000).

Bibliography

Book

Mouffe, C. (2000). The Democratic Paradox. London: Verso.

Internet

--. 2020. Atraksi Kolosal Okokan Buka Festival Tanah Lot. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2020. https://www.nusabali.com/berita/70323/atraksi-kolosal-okokan-buka-festival-tanah-lot

--. 2020. Protokol Pencegahan Penularan Covid-19 dan Perlindungan Masyarakat Penanganan Jenasah. Diakses pada 1 Juni 2020. https://covid19.go.id

Adiwijaya. 2020. Bali Terapkan PKM Non-PSBB, Pengamat: Awas Isu HAM. Diakses pada 31 Mei 2020. https://www.tagar.id/bali-terapkan-pkm-nonpsbb-pengamat-awas-isu-ham

Artaya. 2020. Pro Kontra PKM Denpasar, Diminta Siapkan Pangan Warga dan Persiapan Matang. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2020. https://atnews.id/portal/news/4628

Mustofa. 2020. Gubernur Larang Total Pelaksanaan Ogoh-Ogoh Seluruh Bali. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2020. https://radarbali.jawapos.com/read/2020/03/20/184813/gubernur-larang-total-pelaksanaan-pawai-ogoh-ogoh-di-seluruh-bali

Riza. 2020. Pawai Ogoh-Ogoh di Bali Tetap Bisa Dilaksanakan Dengan Syarat. Diakses pada 30 Mei 2020. https://news.detik.com/berita/d-4942973/pawai-ogoh-ogoh-di-bali-tetap-bisa-dilaksanakan-dengan-syarat