Social Hermeneutic Analysis of Village Lockdown to Prevent the Transmission of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Bontang Kuala Village, Bontang, East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

This paper focuses on the total closure of a tourist village initiated by its residents. It is called Bontang Kuala, a village with a mixed population of Bugis-Wajo ethnicities on the coast of Bontang, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. This village is crowded with local tourists, especially on holidays, located on the edge of the city of Bontang with 24-hour internet service. It’s health culture is colored by a combination of cultural practices of the Bugis-Wajo diaspora, Islam and modern clinical culture at the same time. Bombardment of discourse on Covid-19 created tremendous panic, prompting them to implement village lockdowns. The implementation of the village lockdown operates more like a social game based on the discursive elements of the Covid-19 protocol, which is carried out by divided subject groups. The village guarding was very strict, preventing outsiders from entering, guarding and applying very strict health protocols to outsiders who for special reasons have to enter the village. But at the same time, they are helpless to prevent the crowd of fellow guard officers, and also hesitate to prohibit the parents from leaving the village on the grounds of working. Using a combination of Paul Ricoeur's perspective on Social Hermenuitics, Michel Faucault's power / knowledge perspective and Althuser's view of the divided subject, the authors interpret the Bontang Kuala Lockdown as nothing more than an experiment with the discursive elements of the Covid protocol driven by mass panic rather than the implementation of a strictly disciplined health protocol.