VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Illustration of a COVID-19 handling worker. (ANTARA/HO/FR) - 

Quite akin to the point repeatedly emphasized by government officials, Indonesia cannot be free from the COVID-19 pandemic without support of the people.

The government could not fight alone against the pandemic, especially to recover the nation if the people do not come forward to help.

Unfortunately, people tend to view the handling of the pandemic and public health issue in general as state-centered affairs, Centre for Strategic and International Studies' (CSIS) Researcher Alif Satria stated.

For instance, the policy to implement the public activity restriction (PPKM) often receives backlash.

However, after the public became willing and started adhering to the PPKM regulation, Indonesia has managed to control the spread of COVID-19 and become one of the best performing countries in terms of handling this pandemic.

Based on this example, it can truly be seen that the people's cooperation is instrumental in realizing the government's policy, especially concerning the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, what is often overlooked is the huge role that civil society organizations play in helping the government to encourage the people in implementing its policies.

Satria noted that civil society organizations play a crucial role in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, especially local civil society organizations.

There are several initiatives that come from local civil society organizations, which are more localized and play an important role in providing public services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Examples of this service are providing information to the people at the grassroots level to offering service in the form of health facilities.

In addition, Satria noted that civil society organizations tend to be faster and more efficient in responding to the crisis because they are based on the spirit of volunteerism, non-profit orientation, and strong coordination model.

To this end, he believes that civil society organizations could provide greater contribution to the formulation of the COVID-19 policy than the government.

With this in mind, what exactly civil society organizations do and what collaboration model do they apply with the government?

Civil society's types of activities

The CSIS researcher divided civil society organizations' activities in pandemic handling into three categories: activities in education, activities in service providing, and activities in advocacy.

Civil society's activities in education are usually realized through content creation in social media and brochures concerning health promotion during prayers, much like what has been done by the Muhammadiyah Disaster Management Center (MDMC).

Moreover, civil society organizations could create public portal data, such as kawalcovid.id, to disseminate information to the public.

Satria noted that the creation of a data portal by civil society is faster as compared to the creation of a data portal by the government, specifically the COVID-19 Task Force site.

Various civil societies also often hold webinars that involve various stakeholders concerning COVID-19 that allow for a two-way interaction between the speakers and the audience.

Thus, the people can pose questions concerning unclear information and obtain info related to COVID-19 that they truly need.

The other category is service providing. Satria informed that civil society organizations often assist the government in providing health service equipment, such as disinfectants and protective equipment, especially masks.

In addition, several civil societies are involved in the creation of basic infrastructure that is crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic: hand washing stations, waste processors, and self-isolation spaces.

Furthermore, several civil societies provide family micro-financing service on the account of the economic difficulties that several households encounter due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several corporations that conducted budget efficiency and had to close down were causal to the rise of unemployment in Indonesia.

Satria believes civil society organizations often conduct three types of advocacies.

These are cooperation with the regional government, participation in the discussion forum with government institutions, and conducting research and providing policy recommendation.

"Civil society's activities often become the foundation for the government's policies," he affirmed.

Relation between civil society organizations and the government

Considering civil society's strategic role in COVID-19 handling, it would certainly be beneficial if the government conducts cooperation with various civil society organizations to make the programs that they planned a success.

However, the relation between civil society organizations and the government is not limited to cooperation.

Several civil society organizations decide to act independently that are driven by numerous factors, such as unwillingness to be entangled in state bureaucracy to wishing to be independent from the government.

This civil society organizations-government relation is a form of independent relation.

There is also another form of relation, specifically competitive relation. This relation could occur when the two parties compete to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the public, and they have a different program design.

The advantage of this relation is that the government and civil society organizations compete with one another to produce a better program than the other party that benefits the public as the recipient.

According to Satria, each of these relations have their own negative impacts.

For instance, in a cooperative relation, civil society organizations run the risk of being dependent on the government.

Meanwhile, for an independent relation, having each actor work separately could potentially reduce the program's effectiveness.

Lastly, the negative impact of competitive relation is that it would possibly cause an overlap between the government's program and civil society organizations' program.

While the ideal relation would be cooperative relation, the government should take precautionary measures, so that civil society organizations would not be overly dependent on the government.

Cooperation could also reinforce the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia and allow it to perform the best that it could.

To this end, the involvement of civil society organizations comes as a breath of fresh air for the government to attract more support from the people in implementing various COVID-19 pandemic handling programs//ANT

A health worker inoculates an Indonesian citizen. The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has so far been administered to 72.14 percent of the 208,265,720 targeted recipients. (ANTARA PHOTO/Asep Fathulrahman/tom) - 

The number of fully vaccinated Indonesians or those who have received the second vaccine dose has reached 106.02 million as of 12 noon on Friday, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force.

The number of people receiving the second dose rose by 782,417 on Friday, taking the total number of fully vaccinated people to 106,020,538, data from the task force showed.

Meanwhile, the number of first dose vaccine recipients rose by 1,043,929 to reach 150,249,500.

In addition, the number of third dose recipients swelled by 2,135 to touch 1,268,716, the task force reported.

The Indonesian government is targeting to inoculate 208,265,720 citizens to achieve community or herd immunity.

The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has so far been administered to 72.14 percent of the total 208,265,720 targeted recipients, and the number of citizens who have been fully immunized against the virus has reached 50.91 percent of the total target.

Meanwhile, the government's spokesperson for COVID-19 handling, Reisa Broto Asmoro, said that the government is optimistic of vaccinating 70 percent of the targeted recipients by early 2022.

"We are optimistic that at the beginning of next year, Indonesia will be able to achieve the vaccination program's target, which is vaccinating 70 percent of citizens," Asmoro remarked at a virtual press conference that was accessed from here on Friday.

The Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021, to build community immunity against COVID-19.

The government recently commenced COVID-19 vaccinations for children in the 6–11 age group after Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin issued Ministerial Decree Number HK.01.07/MENKES/6688/2021 on the Implementation of the COVID-19 Vaccination for Children aged 6–11 years old//ANT

Executive director of the International Pediatric Association (IPA), Prof. Dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, SpA(K). (ANTARA/Rizka Khaerunnisa) - 

Executive director of the International Pediatric Association (IPA), Prof. Dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, SpA(K), has lauded the Indonesian government's decision to start COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 6 to 11 years.

The government kicked off COVID-19 vaccinations for children in the 6–11 age group on Tuesday (December 14, 2021). The vaccination program kicked off at three schools in the three provinces of Jakarta, West Java, and Banten.

"I want to say that IPA really appreciates the efforts that the Indonesian government has made. We are one of the countries that have started immunizing children (against COVID-19),” Pulungan said at a virtual press conference on Friday.

It is essential to prioritize vaccinations for children considering that Indonesia is a low-middle income country that has the potential to experience a significant impact if a spike in COVID-19 cases occurs, he added.

In addition, he said that COVID-19 vaccinations could support children's participation in face-to-face learning at schools, which can help recover their mental health after a prolonged period of learning from home.

"The indirect effects of COVID-19 are learning, mental, and emotional disorders," he observed.

Children's vaccinations are also deemed necessary because mitigation efforts are still hard to be implemented at schools, especially in peripheral areas, the IPA executive director noted.

General chairperson of the Indonesian Pediatric Association (IDAI), Dr. Piprim Basarah Yanuarso, SpA(K), also welcomed the government's decision to start vaccinating children in the 6–11 age group.

He appealed to parents to utilize the chance that the government has provided to get their children immunized against COVID-19.

As part of efforts to build community immunity against COVID-19, the Indonesian government launched a nationwide vaccination program on January 13, 2021.

On December 14, 2021, the country began vaccinating children in the 6–11 age group after Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin issued Ministerial Decree Number HK.01.07/MENKES/6688/2021 on the Implementation of the COVID-19 Vaccination for Children aged 6–11 years old//ANT

Talk show on Female Athletes with Disabilities Need More Tournaments to Show Achievements organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - 

Disabled athletes feel that their existence is considered equal to non-disabled athletes. However, they need more tournaments to show their achievements because there are fewer tournaments for them, especially female athletes, compared to tournaments held for non-disabled athletes, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We can see together in the media how busy the schedule of activities for each non-disabled athlete is to compete in the championship. While some Paralympic events for us athletes with disabilities had to be canceled due to the pandemic. We realize that the current pandemic is experienced by all countries. Some events for persons with disabilities were cancelled, but this did not apply to non-disabled persons. It's very sad for us athletes with disabilities,” said Leani Ratri Oktila, the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Gold-winning badminton athlete, in a talk show organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently.

For this reason, ASEAN has received support from the Government of Japan. Last week, ASEAN-Japan held a talk show with ten female athlete ambassadors from all over ASEAN, namely HRH Putri Azemah Ni'matul Bolkiah (Bronze medal winner at the 29th and 30th SEA Games from Brunei Darussalam), Sokha Pov (World Championship gold medalist). Vovinam from Cambodia), and Leani Ratri Oktila (Best Women's Para-badminton 2018 and 2019 Badminton World Federation, 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Gold Winner).

Other athlete ambassadors are head swimming coach for the Laos Olympic Team Soulamphone Kerdla, Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (Malaysia), Soe Soe Myar (referee and athlete from Myanmar), Amitha Berthier (Junior Foil Fencer #1 World and Tokyo 2020 Olympics from Singapore), Panikpak Wongpattnakit (Tokyo 2020 Olympic taekwondo gold medalist from Thailand), Tuyet Van Chau (fourth consecutive Taekwondo gold medalist at the SEA Games), and Hidilyn Diaz (Tokyo Olympic weightlifting gold medal winner from the Philippines).

Jamshed M Kazi, the UN Women Country Representative for Indonesia and Liaison to ASEAN in Jakarta, said female athletes can take a good advocacy role to address various problems experienced by women such as domestic violence, sexual harassment during training and coaching and others. other. “This is a very difficult and traumatic experience for female athletes to go through. However, it's exactly a forum like this where I think women speaking out can voice their experiences, but it's also very difficult to do because there are often long-term consequences for their careers."

Kazi said that if injustice and violence against women were voiced by victims or survivors, they would be taken more seriously. Today, more and more sports organization justice systems and states are taking this issue more seriously. “There is a charge placed. But I think it's important for female athletes to speak up when they themselves are victims or survivors."

Female athletes can also be very strong advocates for raising the issue of gender-based violence in other fields. For example, in the ASEAN region there are still many issues surrounding child marriage. There is a lot of pressure on young women to marry early and not pursue sports or pursue studies. “I think that these women's voices and their own personal experiences. By being a star, by being an influencer, a lot of other kids and young women look their way. So, I think there are two, we on the one hand have to look after these athletes and their well-being, making sure they are free from violence of any kind. But also make sure that we can, they also see this issue as something they have a role and responsibility to talk about across the region," he said.

In addition to the issue of violence, female athletes also face media coverage that can be highly biased against women. This is especially true for athletes who take part in sports that require special clothing. “Especially for me being a gymnast. We are sometimes spoken of in a negative way, whether it be our appearance or our clothes. That's what is shown in the media. I think those are some of the barriers that I am trying to break down to bring a more positive light to women in sport,” said Farah Ann Abdul Hadi, athlete from Malaysia.

Tomohiko Arai, (Director, International Affairs Division of Japan Sports Agency, said that ASEAN and Japan have long established close relations in the field of sports. Both parties have held the ASEAN Plus Japan Ministerial Meeting on Sports every year since 2013. "Among the sports cooperation between ASEAN and Japan, the issue of women in sports is definitely one of the main areas," she said.

To achieve gender equality in sports, ASEAN-Japan held a discussion meeting with stakeholders during the 2018 ASEAN Games in Jakarta and the 1st ASEAN Plus Japan Meeting on Women in Sports in October 2019 in the Philippines. "The ASEAN-Japan Workshop on Promoting Gender Equality in Sports was held online during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics this summer in collaboration with the Japanese Sports Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Ekkaphab Phanthavong, Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, said that women in ASEAN have made many achievements. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, three gold medals were successfully donated by female athletes. However, learning from discussions with sports ambassadors and experts, it is necessary to consider some aspects beyond their achievements in their participation in various sports competitions. All parties must begin to pay attention to the leadership and career paths of women in sports institutions, as well as their safety and protection.

A statement from the sports ambassadors revealed that the family has played a strong role in inspiring female athletes to continue pursuing careers in the sport and work hard towards their dreams. “What motivated me the most to reach and succeed at this level was the support from my parents, especially my family who were very clear. That's what motivates me the most," said Leani Ratri Oktila

In addition, perseverance, self-confidence and a good support system are the keys to the success of female athletes. Female athletes need more sporting events, infrastructure and opportunities to represent their respective countries. Their work cannot be separated from the environment that is conducive to supporting their careers, including the support of media coverage//VOI-NK