The number of Covid-19 outbreak infection is still high in Indonesia. Moreover, the coordination between the central and regional governments on handling the Covid-19 virus pandemic is still irresolute. This condition can be seen from the case in early March 2020 between the central government versus the provincial government (DKI Jakarta and West Java), as well as the central government versus the district/city government on the island of Java.
In its sustainable development, the weakness of coordination between the levels of regional government has developed and deepened into a conflict of coordination between regional governments, both between the provincial government and district/city governments and between district/city governments.
"The appearance of the expansion and deepening of the coordination conflict occurred in the case of handling the COVID-19 pandemic in East Java," said Research Center for Politics and Government (PolGov) Researcher, Department of Politics and Government (DPP)
UGM, Fikri Disyacitta on Monday (6/15).
He explained that as of June 12, 2020, East Java Province was the second-highest confirmed positive rate of COVID-19 in Indonesia, with a total of 7,421 cases. Besides, the region with the highest mortality rate in Indonesia is 553 cases. Precisely, in the city of Surabaya, the total positive infected with the COVID 19 virus in this city are 3,744 cases, more than half (50.5% percent) of the total victims in East Java.
On the other hand, there is procurement of unique cars to carry out the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test in the city of Surabaya drew public attention during the increasing number of victims.
"This case is a manifestation of the expansion and deepening of the conflict of coordination between the levels of local government," he said.
As reported previously, the Mayor of Surabaya City ordered a PCR car at BNPB. However, the governor of East Java forwarded the PCR car to other districts with high transmission rates. Therefore, it triggered the anger of the Mayor of Surabaya, which later becomes viral news.
Fikri said that through the Big Data Analytics Laboratory, he and the team conducted a content analysis and discussion on the proclamation of "PCR cars" in East Java between May 27-June 5, 2020. The online media reports analyzed were 600 articles, with a search for news containing words: "car PCR", "car," "coronavirus," and "Surabaya."
The results indicate the problem of coordination between regional units, namely the provincial government and the city government, is increasingly broad and profound, primarily related to the procurement of PCR cars. At least two things indicate this fact. First, the concept network map shows that the news with the keywords "Tri Rismaharini" and "Khofifah Indar Parawansa" is the most widely appearing. Second, this word and has no connection with each other. The disconnection of the two shows that they are independent, without slices, which is a proxy for lack of coordination.
Besides, it can be seen from the emergence of the concept of the words "angry" and "fast" in the recording of online media talks. This expression of emotion is the second proxy of the weakening and deepening of the conflicting coordination between local government units. Moreover, this could be a form of expression of emotion and frustration of the Mayor of Surabaya City. This condition emphasizes the lack of synchronization between the provincial government and the government city.
Fikri said that the "PCR car" conflict case showed a shift in the pattern of conflict between government units, i.e., from central government versus regional government (provincial and district/city). This information obtained from the monitoring results of online media in terms of the frequency of mentions of related parties; Tri Rismaharini appeared highest (283 times) and Khofifah Indar Parawansa (186 times).
"If you pay attention to its trend concepts, the word 'car' appears as much as 572 times, which is more associated with Tri Rismaharini," he said.
These findings indicate that the discourse of the PCR car more echoed by Tri Rismaharini, which was then responded by Khofifah Indar Parawansa. Although dominated by actor conflicts in the region (governor vs. mayor), other names also appear related to central government figures. Some names that appear are Doni Monardo, Chairman of BNPB (47 times), Joko Widodo (34 times), to Fadli Zon (26 times), who quipped Tri Rismaharini as "a grumpy leader."
Next, from the institutional aspect, the findings of online media monitoring, BNPB is the leading agency in the procurement of this PCR car that emerged. The word "BNPB" appears 165 times, followed by "TNI and Polri" 116 times, and PDI P 81 times. BNPB appears at the top because the procurement of PCR cars comes from the agency. But the highest institutions that emerged in this conversation were not connected.
While from the aspect of the location, the word "Surabaya" appeared 523 times, and "East Java" appeared 489 times. Both became the most discussed word concept. This information can be analyzed as an increase in the intensity of coordination conflicts that occur between the City Government of Surabaya and the Provincial Government of East Java. Three other regions also appeared in the conversation, namely Tulungagung (212 times), Lamongan (190 times), and Sidoarjo (99 times), but did not show significance in the conflict. These three regions emerged because they were the locations of PCR car procurement transfers.
"The weak coordination in disguise reflects the rivalry between local political actors. This competition between local political actors will, in the long run, disrupt civil supremacy and will open up opportunities for security forces such as the military to get involved in this issue," he explained.
Author: Ika
Photo: Shutterstock