Light up the night: Lantern Festivals are the signature New Year's celebrations at Dieng and Borobudur temples. - Jakarta Post/ANN
INDONESIANS are bidding farewell to another terrible year, 2022, the latest annus horribilis, filled with global conflicts, national tragedies and lingering uncertainties.
But while we say good riddance to it, 2022 appears to have revealed some silver linings, giving us reasons to be more upbeat about the new year ahead.
“Twenty-22 was a bad year,” said 30-year-old Ilmia Safitri, a lecturer from Yogyakarta, who said she had been concerned about the health of her children following reports of increasing cases of acute kidney injury (AKI) — which were caused by consuming toxic medicines — among children in the country.
“My children easily get sick after the pandemic.” Her sentiment is hardly an outlier.
A year of tragedies
Globally, the Omicron-driven wave of Covid-19 infection brought a painful start t0 2022, which was followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.
The fresh war in Europe triggered a ripple effect throughout the globe, including in Indonesia. At home, the country also saw some of the worst, and deadliest, tragedies throughout the year.
On Oct. 1, more than 130 spectators of a soccer match in East Java were killed and about 600 others injured in a deadly stadium stampede caused by the unwarranted use of tear gas by the authorities.
More than 40 of those killed in the incident were children.
The tragedy has forced the country to do some soul searching, prompting fresh calls for a review on the use of excessive violence by the police as well as an overhaul of Indonesian soccer, which has long been beset by scandals and controversies.
The incident occurred as the country was reeling from one of the worst scandals to ever hit the police force — the killing of a junior police officer, Nofriansyah Yosua Hutabarat, by his superior: Insp. Gen. Ferdy Sambo, then the force’s internal affairs chief.
Not long after the mass deaths in East Java’s Kanjuruhan stadium, reports emerged that at least 200 children died of acute kidney injury (AKI) after consuming medicines with unacceptable levels of ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG).
The incident has raised serious concerns about the Health Ministry’s and the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency’s (BPOM) weak supervision of drugs sold in the country.
In November, the country was shocked by a 5.6-magnitude land-based quake that struck West Java’s Cianjur regency, killing a total of 602 people.
While authorities have blamed faulty buildings for the hefty death toll, observers said that the Cianjur quake had also revealed shortcomings in the nation’s disaster preparedness.
Democracy in retreat
The year 2022 was also another bad year for democracy.
A group of die-hard supporters of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has floated the idea of extending the President’s term and postponing the election, citing the pandemic and current global economic woes as rationales for the proposal.
Most political parties have rejected the idea and the President has ensured that there will be elections in 2024.
That said, the talks about delaying the elections have never been fully quashed.
The country made global headlines for the wrong reason recently after it enacted the new Criminal Code that criminalizes extramarital sex — a huge concern for foreign tourists wishing to visit Indonesia.
But the legislation itself is more than just about sex — it marked an illiberal shift in the country as it contains provisions that critics say rolled back the democratic achievements the country had made after reformasi.
The new penal code bans citizens from insulting the President and several other state institutions and imposes restrictions on the right to protest.
It also reinstates the anti-left policy banning people from spreading Marxism and communism, an anachronistic provision that shows how the country, which aims to play a greater role on the global stage, has never been able to overcome its Cold War hangover. "Indonesia's democracy is in danger.
This year has been a setback," said Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid.
Silver linings
But 2022 is not all bad, with analysts pointing to several silver linings to give you the confidence you need to welcome 2023, or at least make its prospect less gloomy.
Indonesia, for example, may finally see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. The Covid-19 pandemic has begun to show signs of easing in the country, and it is possible that the government will lift all virus restrictions early next year.
After cases spiked to over 64,000 on Feb. 16, Indonesia’s daily caseload has stabilized in the low thousands, other than another more-minor spike to 8,000 in November.
The low daily caseload has resulted in lenient health restrictions for most of the year, including for the New Year’s Eve celebrations.
To this end, Indonesia’s economic recovery has shown steady growth over the course of the year, with the country’s quarterly GDP growth showing a gradual increase throughout 2022, according to data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
Indonesia’s economy notched a 5.72 percent year-on-year GDP growth rate during the third quarter, up from 5.45 and 5.02 percent growth in the second and first quarters, respectively.
It is seen as a beacon in a series of doom and gloom projections for global economy. But the best highlight of 2022 for Indonesia would be to have successfully hosted the Group of 20 Summit in Bali in November.
The Jokowi administration managed to navigate the complexities of diplomacy in the time of war, and led the world’s 20 largest economies to come up with an agreed statement to address the global challenges.
A dash of optimism
Despite the numerous challenges faced by the country this year, Ivan Pratama, a 26-year-old business owner from Banten's Tangerang regency, said that 2022 was “still a good year” for the country, as it provided the impetus for widespread policy reforms.
“Even though there are negative things that happened, this could have a positive impact in the long run, as long as it’s used as an impetus for restructuring and rebuilding,” he said on Thursday.
“The Kanjuruhan tragedy, for instance... it was a big wake-up call for there to be new [policies] in Indonesian soccer.” - Jakarta Post/ANN
