Fragile States Index Indonesia’s Resilience Improves

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The Fragile States Index issued by the Fund for Peace shows that Indonesia\'s resilience in facing various pressures is increasing.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Indonesia is now more resilient in facing various social, political and economic pressures that can destabilize the country. However, the growing public grievance and factionalized elites have become a serious problem that has to be resolved immediately to prevent Indonesia from slipping into a failed state.

The improvement in Indonesia\'s resilience, among others, is reflected in the Fragile States Index released by the Fund for Peace some time ago. In 2019, Indonesia’s score in the index was 70.4, improving from 72.3 in 2018. The smaller the score a country gets, the more it can stand the pressure.

Of the 178 countries studied this year, Yemen was named the most vulnerable country or ranked first with a score of 113.5. Finland was in 178th or the least vulnerable country, with a score of 16.9, while Indonesia was in the 93rd position.

For the Southeast Asia region, Indonesia is more vulnerable than Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Vietnam. However, Indonesia is better compared to countries like Thailand and the Philippines.

Of the 12 indicators used in calculating the index, three indicators showed an increase, which means that they are getting worse compared to the conditions last year. The three indicators are factionalized elites (from 7.0 to 7.1), public grievance (7.2 to 7.3) and demographic pressure (from 6.7 to 7.3).

Nine other factors improved. These factors include state legitimacy, public services, human rights and law enforcement, and security apparatus.

Interrelated

According to Azyumardi Azra, a professor at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University in Jakarta, the three deteriorating categories for Indonesia are actually interrelated. "The issue of fragmentation in the elite has been on the rise due to increasing complaints in the community, especially related to political economic conditions. There are increasing complaints, which are mainly triggered by economic inequality.

"The condition was transformed and then led to elite division, which was utilized and later became identity politics," Azyumardi said in Jakarta on Friday.

He said the dynamic situation throughout 2019 to post-elections was one of the implications of the economic issues, which are later used by some elites. The impact provoked anger among certain groups.

The head of the political research center at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Firman Noor, said that the Indonesian position in the Fragile State Index reflected the state of democracy in Indonesia.

According to Firman, the elite fragmentation occurs in a number of countries, even in established places like England. "But, remember; do not let the fragmentation sacrifice the community at many levels. Democracy has warning signs that cannot be broken. Differences of opinion are natural, but do not damage the cohesion of the nation. Differences in views should also occur in the program, not only on the issues related of primordialism," said Firman. This also refers to the proliferation of hoaxes that are directed to certain figures on the basis of ethnicity, religion and race, and even issues related to state institutions that are often not true.

Optimism

Azyumardi and Firman said they were optimistic that Indonesia would still survive and be able to overcome the problems that exist today. In the next five or 10 years, Indonesia\'s scores in the Fragile States Index will be better in the Fragile States Index on the condition that the problems that could trigger the division and public protests are resolved appropriately.

Azyumardi said that the government had tried to solve economic problems such by developing various types of infrastructure facilities to improve connectivity so that the people’s economy would grow.

"This will need to be continued with strengthening the economy," he said. Referring to the same index, scores on economic factors consisting of the categories of economic decline, economic gap and migration have improved. However, looking at social factors, especially in the demographic pressure category, Indonesia\'s score increased, which means that conditions are getting worse.

Firman highlighted more specific matters related to the issue of the 2019 elections. Problems such as allegations of fraud, which gave rise to disputes in the community, need to be addressed by jointly monitoring the vote count process of the 2019 general election.

At the same time, there should also a public campaign that looks at all issues, resolving them through the applicable legal mechanisms.

"It needs to be carried out continuously. If not, people can be apathetic and conflicts can be triggered in community groups.

“Stakeholder resources need to be utilized to cope with the reported fraud. So, the solution should not be to only cover up the problem because it will have a bad impact," said Firman.

A sociologist from Gadjah Mada University, Ari Sudjito, said it was necessary to follow up on the results of the index so as to strengthen civil society. The government and society are sometimes not aware of the social vulnerabilities that they need to overcome.

"I just found out that there was a problem when there was violence. In fact, social vulnerability, such as religious clashes, can be easily seen," Ari said. Another thing that needed to be done, said Ari, was the improvement of public spaces, including public awareness through the press and social media.

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