Alleviating Society’s Economic Crisis: Narrative Policy on Social Safety Nets Policy Process During Covid-19 Pandemic

This study aimed to see how the coalition policy at the national level narrated the social safety net (JPS) policy as an effort to save people from the crisis during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) was used to analyze the influence of the policy narrative component from experts, executives, and their supporters on the JPS policy process. The method of the study was descriptive qualitative. The result of the study showed that the strategy of policy coalitions at the meso level in policy narrative influenced the social safety net policy-setting process. In the JPS policy narrative, groups supporting the policy fall into the category of status quo group which positioned itself as a hero. This group came from government circles who claimed that the JPS policy is for the benefit of the community. The second group (victims) came from people who believed in the notion that the implementation of JPS policies was problematic and inappropriate. Villain from the JPS narrative was characterized from a group that took advantage of the situation for personal gain. Moral of the story from JPS policy was that the hero tried to lead the narrative so that the story built legitimized the policy.


Introduction
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a global economic crisis. The OECD report for March 2020, projects that global GDP will only grow by 2.4%, and 2.5% for the G-20 countries.
According to the ILO, the decline in GDP, if only around 2%, would encourage an increase in the unemployment rate of 5.3 million people (ILO, 2020).

I n d o n e s i a i s a l s o experiencing a serious crisis.
Economic activity has stalled, causing production, distribution and consumption processes to stall (Scarabel, Pellis, Bragazzi, & Wu, 2020). A study from SMERU estimated that the  Submitted: 16 January 2021, Revised: 2 March 2021, Accepted: 3 March 2021 so far (see Alam & Hossain, 2016;Griffiths, 2019;Jamaruddin, 2017;Mumtaz & Whiteford, 2017;Narayanan & Gerber, 2017;Sumarto, Suryahadi, & Pritchett, 2000). An overview of the policy process can provide an understanding of the underlying narrative that is built into a policy.
This research tried to fill in the gaps in the study of the policy process in terms of JPS policy narrative. We applied Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) for the analysis. NPF is one of the most developed approaches to policy studies and is most suitable for analyzing policy narratives (Shanahan, Jones, & McBeth, 2018). The NPF is also a policy process framework (Shanahan et al., 2018) or a sophisticated theory of the policy process (Veselková, 2017). The policy narrative is at the core of the NPF study (Jones, Michael D, Shanahan, Elizabeth A, McBeth, 2014, pages. 251-253).
NPF has been using a lot of quantitative approaches. The quantitative approach to NPF has limitations in exploring the strategies of each interest group in narrating policies (Gray & Jones, 2016). This research will use qualitative approach in the NPF so that it can map in depth how the policy narratives affect the JPS policy process. The research question that would be answered in this research is how does the coalition policy at the national level narrate the social safety net (JPS) policy as an effort to save the community's economy from the crisis during the Covid-19 Pandemic from the perspective of NPF approach?

Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) Theory in Policy Studies
Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) originally developed in the 1990s. NPF can be defined as a systematic attempt to study policy narratives and their role in policy processes and outcomes (McBeth, Clemons, Husmann, Kusko, & Gaarden, 2013). The NPF thus complements efforts to understand policy processes and outcomes. disaster would have an impact on increasing poverty in Indonesia, which had been predicted to be 9.7-12.4 percent or equivalent to an increase in new poor groups of 1.3-8.5 million people by the end of 2020 (Suryahadi, Al Izzati, & Suryadarma, 2020). Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Manpower as of April 20, 2020 states, there were 2,084,593 workers from 116,370 companies were laid off.
To minimize the impact of the crisis, in April 2020, the Indonesian government issued a social safety net (JPS) policy as an effort to protect people from crisis risks (Djalante et al., 2020). Assistance provided in the form of cash assistance through the improvement of the family hope program, basic food cards, pre-employment cards, and eliminating electricity rates for 450 VA customers as well as a 50% discount rate for 7 million 900 VA customers in April, May, June 2020 (Bayu, 2020).
The government hoped that the social safety net policy will be able to save people affected by the economic crisis. JPS is likened to a safety on a high-wire walker so that when it falls, it doesn't hit the ground directly (Paitoonpong, Abe, & Puopongsakorn, 2008) In public policy debates, narratives are conducted strategically by competing stakeholders to influence policy (Gray & Jones, 2016). In the policy process, many studies have attempted to unravel the complexity of the temporal interactions between public policies and policy actors, events, contexts, and outcomes. (Weible in Shanahan, Jones, & Mcbeth, 2011, page. 1). In the context of JPS policy process during pandemic, an analysis of the narratives that influence policy was needed. Previous researchs were mostly limited to the implementation and evaluation of JPS policies While majority of policy theories focus on actors and processes in the policy subsystem (Kingdon; Sabatier dan Jenkins-Smith; Baumgartner dan Jones in (Crow & Berggren, 2014)), NPF analysis focuses on the assumption that narrative is an important component of processes and tools that can reflect the beliefs and actions of policy stakeholders. Through this framework, researchers can see an overview of the narrative strategies of actors in influencing policy outcomes.
Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) is a policy process framework (Shanahan et al., 2018) that can be said as the recent or most recent theory of the policy process (Veselková, 2017). NPF places the role of policy narrative in a centralized policy process (Shanahan et al., 2011). NPF is an approach to study the policy process that comes from postpositive theory in public policy (especially policy analysis), but paradoxically, NPF also fights for the so-called 'positivist method' to study the policy process so that the NPF explicitly views the world of policy through the lens of a social construction. This concept subscribes to the idea that policy issues and the entire policy process really depend on the meanings attached to them by the actors involved (Jones & Radaelli, 2015). NPF stands on a series of key assumptions, including that policy narratives are very important in the policy process; policy narratives work at three levels of analysis: micro (individual), meso (policy subsystem), and macro (institutional / cultural); a large number of policy actors produce policy narratives; and policies and programs are a form of translation of believed thoughts communicated through policy narratives, which are tools to convey and organize policy information (Shanahan et al., 2011). Experts operationalized policy narratives by distinguishing two different components, namely narrative form and narrative content.
The narrative form examines the structure of a policy narrative, while narrative content describes the objects contained in it (Jones, Michael D, Shanahan, Elizabeth A, McBeth, 2014).
The policy narrative has a spatial and temporal setting or context when the policy occurs (Jones & Radaelli, 2015;Shanahan et al., 2018), a plot that introduces temporal elements (beginning, middle, end) explaining the relationship between setting and character and the arrangement of the causal mechanism, the character who determines the problem (heroes), the cause of the problem (villains), or the victim (victim). those harmed by problems), and moral stories, where policy solutions are usually offered (Jones & McBeth, 2010). In other words, the policy narrative NPF can be applied to various research designs, both in the form of experimental and non-experimental research, quantitative and qualitative, and can use a variety of data sources (Shanahan et al., 2018). (Gray & Jones, 2016) for example, conducting research with NPF to examine US campaign finance regulatory reform policy narratives. (Weiss, 2018)  In the context of JPS policy, (Sumarto, Suryahadi, & Widyanti, 2005) showed that there are some important things related to JPS in the 1998 monetary crisis, including the fact that there is no preparation to handle the social impact of the crisis. It means that JPS program was not well planned, was not supported by reliable data and no direction to the community (public narrative).
As a result, there was pressure from people who did not understand that JPS was only for the poor. (2) This study does not discuss policy implementation like previous studies, but focuses on the policy process from the initial emergence of policy problems to the existence of policy solutions using NPF with a qualitative approach that has not been widely researched and studied (Gray & Jones, 2016); (3) In terms of approach, this research uses NPF with a qualitative approach which is still rarely used. In addition, we analyzed the narrative process in depth in order to find out the strategies of the actors (which is difficult to obtain using quantitative approach).

Methods
This study used qualitative descriptive approach by analyzing the social safety net (JPS) policy narrative in crisis conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. At the initial stage, the policy process will be divided using the NPF approach by simulating existing components and then anaylzed and narrated it descriptively.
Sources of data in this study were primary data and secondary data. Primary data was collected from the narratives of policy makers in the mass media and interviews with experts (academics) and which is analyzing the narrative nationally. Data collection will be carried out from June and July 2020 via video conference or telephone.
Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then analyzed inductively and deductively by the research team manually. Deductive aspects of coding include NPF policy narrative code: setting, plot, characters, and policy solutions (e.g., moral of the story).

Narrative Policy in the context of Meso
Policies can be analyzed using the Narrative Policy Framework using three levels of analysis: macro, meso and micro (Shanahan et al., 2018). All policy actors mentioned in the paragraph above can be categorized into several policy coalitions: The first policy coalition is a group that complies. (Gray & Jones, 2016)  Republik Indonesia, 2020). Another claim from the government is that the first phase of the JPS program in the April-June 2020 period has been going well (Purnamasari, 2020).
The second policy coalition is a group that assume that the social safety net policy is vital, but its implementation is problematic and needs program improvement, for example in targeting recipients of pre-work card assistance and electricity subsidies (Adam, 2020;Hidayat, 2020 (Yahya, 2020). At least there are several obstacles noted by (Rahmansyah, Qadri, Sakti, & Ikhsan, 2020) in terms of distributing social assistance to deal with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, including assistance delivery inaccuracy (many families returned assistance because they were not included in the target beneficiary but were given assistance, incorrect data on beneficiaries, inconsistencies in recipient data held by the central government and local governments), distribution problems at the grassroots level, for example in the RT and RW areas that lack supervision and monitoring, and lack of public understanding of the social assistance provided by the government. (Consuello, 2020) analyzed the inaccuracy of the pre-employment card policy which seems to focus only on developing the soft skills of prospective job seekers whose output cannot be clearly In the case of the Covid-19 safety net program, at least the government has seven programs that seem to be a "trump card" for the government to get out of the abyss of slowing economic growth during the pandemic. The Seeing this pandemic condition, it is necessary to reform the social protection system that improves mechanisms and expands the coverage of social assistance and social security (Bappenas, interview, 18/08/2020). Reform of the social protection system is carried out through improving data on the poor and vulnerable, integrating and digitizing social assistance, developing an adaptive social protection system, and improving social protection financing mechanisms.
Reform of the social protection system is the main key to accelerate poverty reduction which are also the main agenda.
Villain: Social safety net distribution team.  Nugroho, 2018) In addition to the social assistance program that specializes in the Jabodetabek area, other programs included in the social safety net program have also generated a similar polemic.
Reflecting on the pre-employment card polemic, it does not have much significant effect or impact on informal sector workers in Jakarta. This is because in Jakarta, informal workers were able to attend training through other free and easily accessible media with relatively similar facilities provided in the pre-employment card program activities.
This means that pre-employment cards were not appropriate to apply in Jakarta which people generally have access to facilities without paying (such as wifi corners, etc.) to access contents like business ideas, business opportunities, job skills or soft skills.
The community in general, especially informal workers, expects direct assistance without intermediaries (vendors). However, in pre-employment card program there was a selective system, so, general public could not join the program easily and this caused double assistance with other social safety net programs.
With a total budget of approximately Rp. 20 trillion, the pre-employment card program was very ineffective and inefficient for beneficiaries because part of the funds channeled will be used for purchasing training packages and there was incentive scheme provided in the system. This incentive scheme caused problems because the fund could not be received directly in cash but in the form of digital money (through e-wallets).
In this difficult situation, informal sector workers were no longer faced with the problem of how to get a new job but more towards "eating or not eating today". So that the transfer of preemployment programs or assistance schemes becomes more desirable for the informal sector workers, especially if the paid package fees and incentives are distributed in cash transfers to direct beneficiaries. It could also be a solution to cover people who were not registered (switched) in other social safety net programs. So it was not surprising then that the problem was increasingly widespread in the community and public Net program in that era, the program's target was that beneficiary households had experienced an increase in per capita consumption of 4-10%.
In the case of the Covid-19 safety net program, at least the government has seven programs that seem to be a "trump card" for the redesign must be carried out by promoting "anticipatory democracy", which according to (Toffler, 2009)   In practice, there were so many problems and irregularities that this policy had experienced a lot of criticism and protests from various parties.
People who felt aggrieved had also become one of the most influential actors in the dynamics of this policy, for instance by being direct observers and providing reports to authorized agencies such as Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman was even overwhelmed by the increase in the number of reports related to the distribution of social assistance funds. The policy coalition formed in this case was divided into two, government coalition that stayed true with the initial aim of helping the community in facing the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and another coalition that demanded a change in the system / work pattern of policy implementation. Both policy coalitions exchanged their respective policy narratives in the mass media, both print and electronic. What is understood at the outset is that basically these two coalitions agreed on the need for an appropriate social safety net to deal with the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, but what distinguished them was that the second coalition demanded or expected the government to respond more quickly to the problems faced in the field, especially in the distribution of budgets. The form and design of policies also require evaluation in the short term, so that immediate improvement effort can be taken.
According to (Makinde, 2005), policy implementation is a problem that is often and naturally faced in policy policies in developing countries. The analysis showed that there were several policy realities faced by both social safety net policy coalitions during Covid-19 pandemic. This implementation gap is the main task of the central government to handle in ensuring that the policy objectives narrated are truly realized optimally. In accordance with the description (Makinde, 2005) regarding successful policy implementation, in order to be able to carry out this policy further successfully in 2021 (still a pandemic), the government needs to pay attention to the following aspects: 1) Target beneficiaries of JPS should be involved in the formulation stage so that they can contribute to the policy process, and the government can find out what the community really needs during the pandemic, considering that many policies seem "futile" because they do not really fulfill the needs of many people; 2) More attention should be paid to human resources and budget needed to implement the policy; 3) There must be effective communication between target recipients of policies and implementors of the policy, so that target recipients of the policy truly understand government's intent in this policy; 4) The government needs to pay attention to the sustainability aspects of a program, unless the program is deemed not useful for the government, and the last one; 5) Adequate supervision and monitoring, because projects that are less supervised usually produce unexpected results.

Conclusion
Policy narrative on social safety nets during a pandemic influenced policy making and implementation. In the scope of meso policy, narrative becomes an important part of the policy process. In the initial narrative, the government is considered a hero during the pandemic by offering a safety net policy as one solution. Through the jargon #KemsosHadir, the hero wants to show his actions in overcoming problems and helping people affected by the pandemic.
However, with various problems arising from the social safety net policy,it was clear that the government itself as the implementor could not distribute JPS in accordance with the provisions.
Another problem that arose was that some JPS programs were considered to benefit those who were close to the hero in the narrative of this policy. In this policy narrative, the informal sector workers became the victim of the policy because various problems that arose made the informal sector workers the most disadvantaged party.
The narrative in the policy is an important part of strengthening the determination and legitimizing the policy. The policy narrative could determine the moral of the story going forward.