Netizen`s Reaction in the Social Media toward Disbursement of Social Assistance for Poor People

by Wida Reza Hardiyanti

Alumnus of the Faculty of Economics and Business Gadjah Mada University. Currently employed as a business consultant in the international development program to eradicate poverty of smallholder farmers in the Eastern Indonesia. Former researcher in independent research firm in Yogyakarta named Forbil Institute and Definit.

“We are the poor people are not allowed to get sick."

There is an increasing number of COVID cases in the world has become a concern. The total death in the world due to Covid-19 per September 2021 is 221.648.869 confirmed and 4.582.338 death (WHO in COVID19.go.id, September 8 2021). The number of cases in Indonesia is 4.147.365 confirmed, 3.876.760 recovered, and 137.782 deaths (COVID19.go.id, September 8 2021). It placed Indonesia into 34 ranks of COVID cases in the world.

Due to this serious and fatality, we must concern the most vulnerable people in Indonesia. Many sources mention that the most vulnerable groups are the elderly, those with previous health problems[1], TBC, rhinitis, and autoimmune. They forget that the fourth group is also the most vulnerable: poor people.  The high poverty and inequality rate in Indonesia also challenge the Coronavirus countermeasures. Gini ratio[2] is 0,38, and the percentage of poor people is 9,42% or 25,95 million people (BPS, March 2019). High poverty and inequality prevent low-income people from accessing basic needs, including health facilities, sanitation, and hygiene. Research shows that poor people have low awareness and difficulties accessing proper hygiene and sanitation (Joshi et al., 2011).

Low-income people, especially daily labourers, can't afford necessities without working. They don't have savings as a precaution in this critical time which make them the hardest hit group. Quarantine worsens their economic condition as they can't buy enough food due to job loss.  On the other hand, government enacted regulation to lengthened period of PPKM due to more variant covid emerge, from Delta, Mu, then B.117, B.1351, B.1617. During the lengthened period of PPKM (restriction of community activities) from July up to September, the poor people having more difficulties with jobs, food, shelter, security, and medicines. There are five-eighths of lengthening, the first-named Emergency PPK, held on 3-20 July 2021. The second, government was carried out PPKM extension until July 25 2021. Third, PPKM changed its name to PPKM levels 4, 3, and 2 and was extended again until August 2, 2021. Fourth, the government extended PPKM level 2-4 again until August 9, 2021. Fifth, PPKM extended again until August 16, 2021. Sixth, PPKM was extended again until August 23, 2021. Seventh, the government decided to lengthen the restriction of community activities (PPKM) level 4, level 3 and level 2 in Java and Bali until August 30, 2021. Eighth, the restriction of community activities (PPKM) extended again in Java and Bali area until September 13, 2021. If the restriction of community activities lengthens again, the number of poor people will increase although the government is giving social assistance. The percentage of poor people in March 2021 was 10.14 percent, an increase of 0.36 percentage points from March 2020. The rate of the urban poor in September 2020 was 7.88 percent, increasing to 7.89 percent in March 2021 (Central Bureau of Statistics, July 2021). It shows that the assistance only temporary can solve the economic problem and the permanent solution is giving more access toward the job.

Based on the analysis from Drone Emprit (2021), we can see an increasing trend of people talking about 7^th social assistance from September 2 up to 7, 2021 with top hashtag #PPKM, #PPKMLevel3, and #ayopakaimasker. The word count are “menyerahkan (give up)”, “kompensasi (compensation)”. “PPKM” “warga terdampak (impacted)”, “pandemi COVID19 (COVID19 pandemic), melanggar (violate)”. This happens due to the news that social assistance will be disbursed in September 2021. Most Indonesian people have positive sentiments toward social assistance. In this case, they think that social assistance will help their household economy even though it is temporary. The media type used is Twitter, in which 972 people are talking and comment about social assistance. The peak of the trending topic is on Tuesday after the government mentions that the social assistance will disburse this month. The graph shows a rise of retweets, and mention on September 7 means that the people respond very quickly by retweet and mention the news on Twitter. The mentions mostly happen in the early morning at 5 AM and during the lunch break at 11 AM- 1 PM. 

The emotion analysis shows that the dominant reaction toward the news of social assistance disbursement is anticipation and sadness. This anticipation means that the people are hoping to get the assistance disbursement as soon as possible. Another dominant reaction is sadness, which this emotion came from the people who didn't get social assistance. Some of them are jealous and have the negative feeling to the social assistance recipient, the negative statement such as “Morals are pawned with the help of social assistance funds, BLT, PKH, and other assistance. It happens because they are dropping each other and jealous. Sad.”. Another negative sentiment come toward the social assistance disbursement which has been corrupted by social ministry Jualiari Batubara. It shows that the most word count which usually mention by netizen are the ex-social ministry Juliari Batubara. Some positive sentiment statements include "Submission of BLT-DD (social assistance) for September 2021 allocation to 12 people; hopefully, it will be useful”.

References

BPS. July 2021. “Percentage of Poor People March 2021”. Accessed September 9, 2021 from https://www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2021/07/15/1843/persentase-penduduk-miskin-maret-2021-turun-menjadi-10-14-persen.html

BPS. 2021. “Percentage of Poor People (Percent), 2020-2021. Accessed September 9, 2021 from https://www.bps.go.id/indicator/23/192/1/persentase-penduduk-miskin-menurut-provinsi.html

BPS. March 2019. “DIY Inequality Rate”. Accessed March 21, 2020 from https://yogyakarta.bps.go.id

BPS. March 2019. “Poverty and Inequality”. Accessed March 21, 2020 from https:// bps.go.id

BPS. 2016. “Slump Area.” Accessed March 21, 2020 from https://www.bps.go.id

Joshi, D. et al. 2011. Health, hygiene and appropriate sanitation: experiences and perceptions of the urban poor. Environment and Urbanization, 23(1), 91-111.

World Health Organization. 2020. “Coronavirus”. Accessed March 21, 2020 from https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

Worldometers. 2020. “Covid-19 Coronavirus outbreak”. Accessed March 21, 2020 from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/