Institutional Reconstruction of Promoting and Maintaining the Level of Compliance with Health Protocols in Indonesia during the Pandemic.

Abstract

This article aimed to observe the efforts of Indonesia and the problems faced in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the indecisive public policy and the reluctance of people from all walks of life to comply with the Health Protocols (HP) from the perspective of sociological institutionalism (Nee 2003; Nee and Opper 2015). A two-step variant of SSM-based multi method by Muhammaditya et al. (2021) was applied by inserting (1) Textual Network Analysis by Segev (2020) at stage 1 of SSM to obtain an insightful understanding of the problem situation and to enrich the rich picture, and (2) Social Network Analysis at stage 5 of SSM to expand a skillful discussion on the reality. The research novelty was elaborated in four main empirical facts: First, government policies had initially faltered in dealing with the pandemic, reflected by the dissonance in the statements made by high-ranking state officials. Second, there was a great number of people disregarding HP and pandemic mitigation policies, particularly during annual rites, the end of year celebration, and Eid Al-Fitr. Third, the government encountered a dilemma in issuing policies, whether to remain encouraging economic growth, guarantee the continuity of economic activities, or end the spread of COVID-19. Fourth, the direct involvement of the president in handling COVID-19 had a significant impact in reducing active cases that no province was declared as alert areas in October 2021. Meanwhile, the methodological novelty reflected in broader data and analysis through SNA and TNA methods had enriched the practice of SSM in finding sharper conclusions.