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Indonesians ‘more supportive’ of illiberal COVID-19 measures than their ASEAN neighbors
The survey shows that 63 percent of respondents agreed that the government should be able to constrain civil liberties during the pandemic — higher than 43 percent in Malaysia, 39 percent in the Philippines, 59 percent in Singapore and 49 percent in Thailand.
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An Indonesia Military (TNI) soldier stands guard at the Bundaran HI MRT station in Jakarta on May 26, 2020. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
W
hile Indonesia may have been described — at least in the early years of reformasi (the Reform Era) — as an important bellwether for the state of democracy in Southeast Asia, a recent survey has found that Indonesians are more supportive of “authoritarian” measures to address the devastating pandemic than their Southeast Asian neighbors.
The survey, released by the Australian National University (ANU), found that when it comes to handling the pandemic “in the broader sense, a lot of people in Southeast Asia would prefer strong government intervention, with less emphasis on individual rights”.
However, when asked if they supported policies that curtailed freedoms if the pandemic got worse, Indonesian respondents came out with the strongest net support for strict pandemic measures with 20 percent, meaning that “on average, 20 percent more Indonesian respondents approved of authoritarian measures than disapproved”.
The figure is by far the highest in the region, with minus 7.8 percent in Thailand, 2 percent in Malaysia, 6.7 percent in the Philippines and 7 percent in Singapore.
Suspending freedom
The illiberal measures in question are curfews, media censorship, military involvement, suspension of freedoms and emergency laws. The survey has found that more than half of Indonesian respondents approved of all measures except for media censorship.
