Indonesia’s resilience as a nation is increasing amid concerns over social cohesion, according to the Fragile States Index.Indonesia’s score on the Fragile States Index increased from 72.3 to 70.4 in 2018; the higher the score, the more vulnerable the country. The index, released by the non-profit Fund for Peace, measures 12 indicators in four categories.
Cohesion indicators include assessing state security, or who controls security forces and the relationship between security and citizenship, ethnic and religious groupings, community leadership, and social fragmentation, especially fragmentation attributed to community or political characteristics, access to services and resources, and political inclusiveness.
Economic indicators measure declines in household economy, the wealth gap and expatriation. Political indicators measure the state legitimacy, public services as well as human rights and law enforcement, whereas the index’s social indicators measure demographic pressure, refugees inside and outside sovereign territory, and external intervention.
Of the 12 indicators, Indonesia’s score increased (higher vulnerability) in the cohesion indicators, particularly in elite fragmentation and civil grievances, and in the social indicator of demographic pressure. The index thus suggests that the country must work on maintaining national security. At the same time, it suggests that we must all work together – especially the political elite – to improve equal access to economic and social resources and to increase political participation.
We have realized through the 2019 general election that political polarization has divided society.
If we believe the Fragile States Index, the views of economist Raghuram Rajan in The Third Pillar (2019) become significant. The former governor of the Indian central bank and research director of the International Monetary Fund argued that a balance between the three pillars of the state, the market and the people was necessary for communities to live in peace and prosperity. Community is defined as a social group in a particular environment of a country that sometimes share cultural and historical heritage.
Given the condition of the global community – which includes Indonesia – that is facing the onslaught of digitally amplified free market economics, national resilience can ben heightened by encouraging communities to find shared values to counteract the negative influence of fake news and unscrupulous government officials. This is even more significant, as most people in Indonesia depend on the close ties they develop within their communities.