Burhanuddin Muhtadi, executive director of the organisation that conducted the surveys, said they had wanted to look at the effect the pandemic had on political support, including for democracy, “democratic satisfaction and who in the government handled the initial poor response” to the pandemic.

Not only had there been “fights between the local and central governments” and “ministries sending conflicting messages” about the virus, but “more than 48 per cent of workers have lost income”, Muhtadi said “and there is a correlation between the economy and the perception of the democracy”.

However, the survey of 1,200 people from all of Indonesia’s 34 provinces, which was conducted over the phone between May 16 and 18, did only contain one question that was specifically about democracy, Muhtadi said – the other 39 dealt with health access, school closures, jobs and other issues amid the pandemic.

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Marcus Mietzner, an associate professor at Australian National University in Canberra and a long-time researcher of Indonesian politics, said the fact that February’s survey was conducted in person while the one in May was done over the phone because of contagion fears “makes the two data points difficult to compare.”

“Second, this is not about support for, but satisfaction with, the way democracy is practised in Indonesia,” he said. “Thus, people who are dissatisfied could include those who want more autocratic responses and those who want a more liberal approach. So without further survey questions, this is just an expression of general dissatisfaction, which of course is not surprising given the conditions.”

“I don’t think we can make any generalisation and conclude that crisis management works better in a particular system of government or a particular continent. The capacity to handle the crisis rests entirely with the individual leadership skills and institutional capacities of a particular government,” he said. “Still, regardless [of] whether there is conclusive evidence, it is the general perception, also in Indonesia, that democracy puts shackles on top leaders and prevents swift and effective action. This was obviously also found in that Indonesian survey.”

Indonesia is beginning to emerge from coronavirus lockdown. On Monday, Jakarta’s office buildings reopened with upscale shopping malls and restaurants, as well as traditional markets, expected to follow suit on June 15.

Other regions are doing the same, but it remains to be seen what effect this will have on Indonesia’s economy or its tally of Covid-19 infections, which had surpassed 34,000 as of Wednesday with 1,959 deaths.

In the meantime, some such as 46-year-old law professor Hesti Septianita worry about the “repressive approach” taken by Indonesia’s government in the past against those who criticise the government – citing a 2008 “Electronic Information and Transaction Law” that has seen people imprisoned for offences ranging from creating home sex tapes to complaining about the care they received in hospital and criticising the country’s leaders.

“I think there is no relation between Covid-19 and our handling of democracy,” the 33-year-old said.

Widodo himself remains popular, according to the May Indikator Politik Indonesia survey, which found his approval rating for overseeing the national response to the virus steady at nearly 67 per cent, despite government bungling in the early weeks of March.

But this might not last, according to Muhtadi. “Joko and the parliament should be more careful. If they fail to handle the crisis, people may look toward a system outside of democracy,” he said.