UNS – Keeping distance from the surrounding people or currently known as Social Distancing is one of the policies taken by the Government of Indonesia to prevent the spread of Coronavirus or Covid-19. This policy was delivered officially in President Speech on Sunday (15/3/2020) in Istana Bogor.
The policy to do Social Distancing is affecting the activity in the community. For instance, the diversion from face-to-face classroom lectures into the online lectures. Moreover, several civil servant office and private companies also instruct their worker to Work From Home (WFH).
The term Social Distancing is commonly interpreted as maintaining social distance. Several examples mentioned are including avoiding activities that create a crowd. However, not only a few people still conducting normal activities outside the house. A sociologist from Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta, Dr. Drajat Tri Kartono M.Si is responding to the Social Distancing policy.
“Social Distancing means to separate individuals from the crowd. Therefore, the community that initially in a group will be divided into individuals,” said Dr. Drajat.
In sociology, there is a term Social Distance, which commonly used by a Sociologist. However, there is a slight difference in terms of meaning, Social Distance itself has a meaning ‘a social distance’ which stressed on the meaning of “social” into “individual social status” such as between upper and lower economic circles or friendship between two people. One aspect that affects Social Distance is trust. For instance, if two individuals establish a friendship, thus they have a high trust.
“As for Social Distancing, this term is established and is used by those engaged in the medical field to appeal to the public regarding the spread of Covid-19. It aims so that people can keep distance among individuals and preventing the spread,” said Dr. Drajat.
On Monday (23/3/2020) word got out regarding the response from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the meaning of Social Distancing in the community. WHO suggests the use of Physical Distancing to educate the people. This suggestion is given based on the meaning of Physical Distancing that refers to physical distance and not social distance among the closest person.
Dr. Drajat himself is responding positively with the suggestion from the WHO. However, in the current situation, the most important matter is to provide dissemination and education to the community to maintain their distance with one another. Therefore, the spread of the virus can be stopped.
A collective effort is needed to explain this policy to the community. Obviously, the efforts made can not be the same as the one implemented in other countries. For instance, in Japan and Korea, these two countries already have good individual self-awareness. When the government issues a regulation, the people respond quickly and instantly obeying because they are aware that this condition will impact their life. Aside from the two countries, other countries such as in China, Italy, and Russia, the government has great power in imposing regulation.
According to Dr. Drajat, Indonesia with its strong cultural background, making this Social Distancing policy a little difficult to enforce. For example in Solo, there are still people who gathered in a crowd at several points. Pakewuh is an inherent attitude in the majority of Solo resident, which make them keep attending group activity. One of them is Rewang or marriage party in the village.
Moreover, some worship activities are still carried-out in-group by holding fast to the belief that God will protect them. Even though there have been official recommendations from the authorities and experts to conducts worship activity from home. Various policy issued by the Government has been previously reviewed. Therefore, the role of the public figure becomes important and influential in delivering the policies.
Simultaneous movement by all lines needs to be done to hold dissemination, starting from the religious leaders, education, government official, and all parties with great influence on society. Because even if the medical parties have attempted to treat the sick person, but the community does not support them then it will be useless. Moreover, the community can work together to fulfill the needs of society. For those with the upper-middle economic class, they can give assistance for those in lower-middle economic class. Therefore, the Social Distancing and Work From Home (WFH) policy can be implemented properly and optimally, because society does not need to worry about their income.
“Solidarity is important right now. The medical team has attempted to cure, the government is trying to do prevention with a variety of policies and actions, and the community is proactive to support the policy,” said Dr. Drajat. UNS/Ratri