Local Government Authority in Implementing Lock Down to Cope with the Spread of Covid-19 in Indonesia

Abstract

The Central Government's policy with local governments in handling the Covid-19 pandemic has been discussed. The authority is in the Central Government and the position of the Local Government is only as a subordinate. In practice, the policy taken by the Central Government creates legal uncertainty because it does not follow the mechanism of handling disease outbreaks. The purpose of this study is to describe the implementation of central government policies in handling the Covid-19 pandemic and to review the legitimacy of local governments in the implementation of Lockdown. This study uses a normative approach and uses secondary data in the form of legal materials. The data is qualitatively analyzed. The results of this study show that the authority to establish health quarantine mechanisms in the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic is the authority of the Central Government. Local Government policy in establishing a lockdown mechanism has validity under the perspective of the constitution and the framework of regional autonomy. The policy applied by the Local Government is to fill the legal uncertainty due to the policy by the Central Government that establishes civil emergency. Another legitimacy is the 1945 Constitution which has confirmed the conception of local government by using decentralization. The concept of decentralization makes the Local Government one of the entities in the administration within the framework of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.