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As COVID-19 engulfs the country, conspiracy theorists rail against ‘globalist agenda’
The recent COVID-19 case spike in Indonesia has not stopped several groups, including rock stars and government officials, from claiming that the virus is not as dangerous as people think.
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I Gede Ari Astina, known as Jerinx or JRX, poses with a shirt that announces his rejection of COVID-19 rapid testing. (Instagram/Courtesy of @sayabersamajrxsid Instagram page)
O
ver the last one and a half years, Indonesia has seen COVID-19 cases rise and fall on multiple occasions, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and an ongoing economic crisis.
Yet a number of Indonesians remain firm in their belief that what they call the “plandemic” – hinting that the whole thing is part of some larger, evil scheme – is fake, the casualties exaggerated, and the virus, at most, trivial. They have been vocal in their tirades against the “narrative” they claim is concocted by the government, condemning the fear it has instilled in citizens and the financial ruin caused by repeated periods of restrictions. With certain public figures stating their support for some of these beliefs, COVID-19 conspiracy theories have begun to gain ground in the country.
A recent study by Yatun Sastramidjaja of the University of Amsterdam shows that misinformation in Indonesia spreads rapidly on social media, especially since the start of the pandemic. COVID-19 hoaxes range from the importance of buying a particular brand of milk to messages opposed to PCR tests and vaccines. Some stem from conspiracy communities on Instagram, public figures and even doctors.
‘Evidence in the field’
“There are a lot of citizens who report unusual things, like some people were declared to have COVID-19 when in reality they didn’t have it. Some of them even admitted they wanted to be ‘covided’ and be given money,” one Bali-based conspiracy theorist who wished to remain anonymous said.
The term “covided” has become popular among Indonesians for its intense use by COVID-19 nonbelievers and government skeptics. To be covided is to agree to be injected with the virus itself or be paid by the government to be labeled a COVID-19 patient.
Stories to this effect have been largely debunked. One popular story came from a viral tweet claiming that some hospitals in Surabaya had manipulated patients’ COVID-19 results to get more money from the government. The Indonesian Hospital Association (PERSI) reached out to the person who posted the tweet and found out that she “only knew about it from [her] father’s friend who she said was someone from the health agency,” kompas.com reported.
Amid the lack of proof, the story was labeled a hoax. The original poster apologized for not checking the validity of the claim beforehand.
Many conspiracy theorists mention “evidence in the field”, the events they claim to see their neighborhood, beyond the statistics given by the government. Some say their subdistrict heads tell them the pandemic is exaggerated and have showed them the districts’ statistics.
Read also: Deputy governor urges Jakartans to stay at home as active cases exceed 100,000
“I’m not saying I don’t believe in COVID-19. I believe it exists but that it’s not as dangerous as [the government] is making it out to be,” the Bali-based conspiracist said, hereafter referred to as HT.
A health ministry spokesperson said last year that discrepancies between the central and local government’s numbers existed because of poor data integration.
Meanwhile, some regional heads, such as the former Sukoharjo district head and the Dokoro village head in Grobogan, Central Java, were found to have disparaged and violated health protocols themselves.
‘Scientific’ reasoning
Most of the conspiracy theorists look up to certain doctors and health figures who have questioned the seemingly exaggerated danger of the virus and have scorned the “fear-inducing” protocols, from virologist Moh. Indro Cahyono to former health minister Siti Fadilah Supari.
“The swab tests are actually not important,” Siti says in a YouTube video alleging a global conspiracy. She then lists the healthy ways of living she considers sufficient to ward off the virus.
“[Asymptomatic people] are also counted [in the tally]. That’s why the positive numbers in Indonesia go up to 1 million and people get scared,” she continues.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that asymptomatic people can still spread the virus to others.
But for skeptics and cynics, the WHO is not to be believed because it is a leading “globalist” organization. And spearheading the movement against this perceived globalist narrative during the pandemic is Jerinx or JRX, whose real name is I Gede Ari Astina, drummer of the popular Indonesian punk rock band Superman Is Dead.
“There has been an interesting phenomenon since the start of the plandemic. The global punk [and hardcore music] community is divided into two factions: the ones who are pro-globalist-narrative (WHO, mainstream media, Gates, Fauci, etc.) and the ones who are against it. [...] This phenomenon, I believe, has also happened in Indonesia. The most concrete example is Bali and [Jakarta],” he wrote in a post on his popular Instagram account, which has been banned and reinstated a few times but has over 1 million followers. While it is impossible to gauge how many of his followers and fans share his views, the number of comments that praise his “bravery” and ideas, seems to indicate that it is not a negligible amount. The Jakarta Post has tried to reach JRX and has relayed several questions through the manager of his other band, Devildice, but failed to receive responses in time for publication.
“It’s a shame because I think the unity of the resistance during this crisis is sorely needed so that tyranny and fascism cannot advance,” he wrote. His influence is seen further with the number of Instagram fan pages supporting him, such as @sayabersamajerinx (I'm with Jerinx).
And so people with the same stances rally behind JRX and take their cues on the virus from him.
“COVID-19 has a 99.8 percent survival rate (higher than what Jokowi stated – 94 percent), which, if you put it LOGICALLY, the chance that you die from a falling, ‘95 classical piano while you’re swimming on Kuta Beach at 4 in the morning is HIGHER than dying of COVID-19,” he wrote in another post.
This echoes the popular argument made by former United States secretary of housing and urban development Ben Carson on the right-wing media outlet Fox News, which also spread the message that the COVID-19 mortality rate was only 1 percent. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US’ leading pandemic scientist, has said the number might be accurate but that seen from the perspective of the world population, it is a dire figure.
“The seasonal flu that we deal with every year has a mortality rate of 0.1% [...] which means that [COVID-19] is 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu,” he said in March 2020.
But with the “globalist” label on him, Fauci’s warnings are ignored by conspiracy theorists.
As of Wednesday, 62,908 Indonesians had died of the virus, excluding unrecorded deaths, which are thought to be significant because of the country’s lack of testing.
The grand scheme of things
According to the posts and comments spreading on COVID-19 conspiracy theory communities, such as the popular Instagram page @teluuur, the narrative is as follows. The WHO, the UN and other international groups are institutions of the “global elite” that incite fear in the first place, and the people who follow them are the “globalists”.
The @teluuur account has more than 638,000 followers, many of whom actively participate in comment section discussions.
Former US president Donald Trump notably used the word globalist to describe someone “who wants the globe to do well, frankly not caring so much about our country”.
“I'm a nationalist," he continued, bolstering his “America First” slogan.
This sentiment is also shared by Indonesian conspiracy theorists, who proudly declare their nationalism.
“We have someone from our own country who can make the Nusantara vaccine, but they don’t appreciate it. They even ditched him. Then, they bought foreign products bearing much uncertainty and even forced people to be vaccinated,” HT told the Post.
The Nusantara candidate vaccine, developed in part by former health minister Terawan Agus Putranto, did not meet the clinical requirements to be accepted by the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM).
Research by the University of Indonesia shows that education level is a factor in susceptibility to conspiracy theories.
“From the majority of the respondents who believe COVID-19 is a global elite conspiracy, 50 percent are junior high school graduates and 30.9 percent are senior high school graduates,” said Eko Sakapurnama, the head of the research team.
The uncertainty that the virus poses – its “invisible” threat, its seemingly unending cycle – is another factor. Last year, a study on COVID-19 conspiracy theories by researcher Karen M. Douglas of the University of Kent found that people were more prone to believing such theories when they were anxious, worried or powerless.
“They are also worried that the actions of powerful outgroups such as governments are making things worse,” she stated.
This resonates with other conspiracy theory arguments that cite the government’s suspicious handling of the pandemic. It has not helped that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo admitted on March 13 of last year that the government covered up some COVID-19 data when the virus first reached the country to prevent people from panicking.
Read also: COVID-19 tragedy exposes how broken Indonesian politics is
“[COVID-19] is a budget absorption conspiracy. People are only given Rp 300,000 to Rp 600,000 per month. What good will that do?” HT told the Post. “And not everyone gets it, either.”
Asked by one of his followers about whether the pandemic was a natural calamity or a profit-oriented project, JRX answered that it was “the second one”. It is this headstrong quality that has caused him to be the longest standing and most trusted figure in the conspiracy theory community, even after he had caught the virus himself.
“Is it too much if I maintain my integrity of not eating my own words?” he replied to a comment on one of his posts. “For me, this is NOT an attention-seeking event – it's 100 percent about principles.”
