In this webinar, Dr Yanuar Nugroho, Ms Sofie Syarief, Ms Tricia Yeoh and Dr Punchada Sirivunnabood surveyed and analysed the coordination aspects of COVID-19 responses.
REGIONAL ECONOMIC STUDIES PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Friday, 18 October 2021 – ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute hosted a webinar on “COVID-19 Horizontal and Vertical Policy Coordination: Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand” presented by Dr Yanuar Nugroho Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, co-founder and advisor to the Jakarta-based Centre for Innovation Policy and Governance (CIPG) and Honorary Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, UK; Miss Sofie Syarief, journalist, working as a news anchor/talk show host and executive producer for Kompas TV; Miss Tricia Yeoh, CEO of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS), Kuala Lumpur and PhD Candidate at the University of Nottingham Malaysia; and Dr Punchada Sirivunnabood, Visiting Fellow in the ISEAS Thailand Studies Programme and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Mahidol University, Bangkok.
Dr Nugroho began his presentation with an introduction of the COVID-19 situation in Indonesia, which experienced two early waves of infections that were kept under control by the Indonesian government. However, a third wave of infections, sparked by the delta variant, led to a high number of cases in July and August 2021 and was eventually brought under control in September 2021. Regarding vaccine distribution, as of 17 October 2021, 51.6% of Indonesians have received their first dose and 30.1% of Indonesians have received the second dose. Dr Nugroho also touched on his observations on the trends in Indonesian politics. Historically, vertical coordination from a ministry down to all levels of government was conducted when the Indonesian government needed to formulate and implement policies. In contrast, horizontal coordination between ministers was more difficult and initiatives involving multiple ministries tended to fail. He also explained that power and dominance for self-interest is growing and that there was a lack of real checks and balances as the government exercised its authority. Dr Nugroho concluded his presentation by proposing lenses to look at how self-interest affects policymaking processes. In vertical coordination, failure is attributed by ministers to “half-hearted autonomy” whereas that in horizontal coordination is attributed to “incompetent officials”.
The webinar was then passed on to Miss Syarief who presented two case studies. The first case study was on horizontal coordination with scrutiny on three issues. Firstly, two coordinating ministers who had different propositions on mobility restrictions were given different regions to govern, leading to inconsistency in implementation. Secondly, the vaccination scheme, “Vaksin Gotong-royong”, gave the rich more privileged access to vaccines. Lastly, there was an inconsistency of terms used as seen in the case when two new terms created to replace the word “lockdown” and the situation in Java and Bali were badly handled. The second case study was on vertical coordination where there was a disparity in national and subnational data on COVID-19 infection and death numbers, mainly due to the desire of subnational governments to upkeep an image of having COVID-19 infections under control. Delivery and data in social assistance were also inconsistent and outsourced to other parties to manage with local governments having no control over vaccine distribution. The Indonesian government prioritized the economy throughout the pandemic until the delta variant of COVID-19 overwhelmed the country. Miss Syarief ended her presentation by reattributing the low state capacity to two important aspects: making decisions based on self-interest and arbitrary exercise of authority.
The webinar was then passed on to Ms Yeoh who provided on insight on the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia and several political milestones within the period. She highlighted that the second COVID-19 spike occurred after the politicians’ return from Sabah’s state election on 26 September 2020, and worsened by the King’s delay in approval of State of Emergency between 25 October 2020 and 12 January 2021. Next, Ms. Tricia highlighted the state of federal-state relations in Malaysia and explained that Malaysia is a highly centralized state and its Senate does not have a strong representation of states. For each area of policy, there are also overlaps pertaining to federal governments, state governments, and concurrently managed areas. Constitutionally, federal law tends to supersede state laws.
Ms Yeoh then underlined three categories of horizontal coordination. The first is the group managing Movement Control, SOPs and the Economy, and included LAKSANA, a joint administrator of agencies under the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stimulus Implementation and Coordination Unit between National Agencies. The second group looks into Public Health and Vaccinations, including supporting the implementation of the national vaccination program and managing oxygen tank supplies and corpses. The third group oversees Budget and Stimulus Packages, established LAKSANA and ensures that economic stimulus packages are delivered to and benefit all levels of society. There were a number of issues in horizontal coordination. Firstly, communication channels were initially managed by the Health Minister but were taken over by the Director General after the former gave medically unsound advice to citizens. Secondly, there was a vaccine procurement delay. Thirdly, the reporting of economic stimulus packages was outsourced to Ernst and Young, a private consultant. Lastly, distribution of main stimulus packages was divided along constituent and political lines. There were also inter-ministerial gaps and agency coordination gaps and many official announcements were reversed or had different ministries making contradictory announcements. In terms of vertical coordination, the federal government enjoyed nearly unlimited power and chief state ministers were not involved in the National Action Council meeting or consulted in policymaking. This led to Sabah and Sarawak exercising their constitutional powers to contradict federal announcements, and nine states initially resisting compliance with the decisions made by the National Action Council meeting.
The webinar was then handed over to Dr Sirivunnabood who examined the trend of COVID-19 cases in Thailand. Thailand had been successful in handling COVID-19 cases in 2020 and the spike in cases only began in April 2021 when people started moving within the country during the festive season. In the last one to two months, the government managed to contain the outbreak and there were no major issues such as shortage of oxygen tanks. However, the vaccine distribution process in Thailand is complicated and bureaucratic. The vaccines first go through Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for three to six months before being conveyed to the Department of Disease Control to be distributed to various ministries and provinces. This distribution is based on a number of factors such as the population density, the current COVID-19 situation in the province and proportion of high-risk groups. Currently, the “Sinovac” and “AstraZeneca” vaccines have passed the test by FDA and are being distributed while the “Pfizer-BioNTech” and “Moderna” vaccines have just begun their approval process.
A second issue plaguing vaccine distribution lies along political lines as ministers from different political parties would vie for vaccines for their party and provinces which have a larger voter base. Another issue is in vaccine application where people are required to register through a phone application. However, due to high demand and administrative hiccups, there came to be at least five applications available and many people needed to withdraw their application and apply on another application. Dr Siriyunnabood concluded her presentation by sharing that Thailand aims to open up on 1st November 2021, even though less than 50% of its population is vaccinated.
The webinar concluded with the speakers answering questions posed by the audience, such as the validity of the policymaking and coordination undertaken by the various governments as well as whether questions or discourses were sparked in each country regarding the roles and autonomies of federal and subnational governments.