Amidst the Pandemic, Together in the Name of Humanity

This article has been published on The Jakarta Post paper edition on April 07, 2020 in this following link https://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2020/04/06/solidarity-unity-emerging-in-pandemic.html with some modifications from the editor.

I was stunned the second I read that the largest online marketplace in Indonesia, Tokopedia, banned thousands of its sellers who put unreasonable prices on medical kits needed to fight against coronavirus. This model of business is widely famous for its long tail economy, which means they offer a variety of products that are rarely found in conventional retail stores.

In this matter, Tokopedia could get benefitted, either by traffic data or charging the service fee, by having thousands of sellers who offer corona related medical supplies in its platforms amidst the high demands due to the pandemic. Surprisingly, Tokopedia was brave enough to cut down its comparative advantage in this long tail economy.

Not so long before Tokopedia took the action, ride-hailing decacorn companies already fasten their seatbelt in preparing their ecosystem to deal with the outbreak. Gojek and Grab express their support by preparing their riders fleet in supporting the supply and demand of necessary stuff, like food and transportation of medical workers, in the middle of the country’s semi-lockdown mechanism.

All sectors are badly hit by this pandemic, none of us is ready. Those start-ups with a fragile business model are also stress themselves amidst the sudden change. However, the example of Gojek dan Grab shows companies can also manage to keep their breath while on the other hand keep swinging the sword to fight against the common human’s enemy, the virus. The example of Tokopedia is even much appreciated since they are brave enough to cut its tail which could probably affect their competitiveness level with other online marketplaces.

Amidst this pandemic, we can obviously see the business can also adjust their interest to serve the greater benefits of the public. This level of solidarity is not only shown in this capitalism practice, but also on the political sphere.

When was the last time you saw Nadhlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, two biggest moslem organization in Indonesia who even have a different interpretation of Eid-Al Fitr day, stand hand on hand with Felix Siauw, a hardline moslem group’s figure? Those who usually turn their back on the government and pursue a hardline approach in addressing their demands, currently agree to unite their voice behind the authorities through a quick-deliberative process.

What happens in the civil society level is even more awesome. People know the government is not ready in dealing with this situation. Crowdfunding and public support fill this gap. Indonesian diaspora collects the money to buy limited medical equipment stock all around the world and ship it to Indonesia. A good example of the positivity that the world has been doing as well. I live in Sweden and all my Chinese friends here receive hundreds of shipped masks from their home country to prevent the outbreak.

Moreover, doctors spare their leisure time to provide free online consultation through social media understanding our healthcare system is not ready to address all public questions. Group of scholars and data-driven professionals provide online information regarding the virus outbreak in balancing the authorities’ late information.

Everyone regardless whatever their background shows efforts in tackling the outbreak. There is no religion, ethnicity, political views or economic status, the only one that exists is us versus them, the virus and all people who seem to support it. The latter refers to the ignorant individual who for instance, has a privilege to stay and work from home without having any significant risks, but insists to keep staying outside and endanger people around him.

Reflecting in a bigger picture, what happens during this pandemic puts a promising future for our democracy after the pandemic hopefully ends soon. None of those initiatives is forcefully taken, and it purely emerges from people and all actors’ solidarity. Social media has once again proved its importance in bringing alternative information and actions and thus, the surveillance over it must be loosened up in our democratic system.

In the relations between central and local government, it is a good sign that more breakthrough comes from the local initiative instead of the central government. The first idea to track down the outbreak and impose social distance mechanism comes from the Jakarta Governor. West Java applies a systematic and measurable virus test. Surabaya mayor in collaboration with university invents sterilization chamber as preventive action. It once again shows the decentralization system still works well in our democracy in bringing more progressive policies to be widely implemented on the national level.

The pandemic perhaps is not about to end soon as predicted by some scientists since they are still working on the cure. Different coping mechanism has been applied by countries, however, reflecting on our current situation, at least I can see hope from our strong community solidarity. This aligns with the beautiful piece of Noah Yuval Hariri “the world after coronavirus” published by The Financial Times. In the current pandemic, public deliberation and empowerment are all we need. Cross-sectoral cooperation in battling the one common defined enemy, the virus, is essential. The actions we are taking during this crisis will define the world we will be living in after the pandemic and this does definitely apply to Indonesia as well.

Image source: https://www.dianova.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/civil-society.jpg.