Additionally, multilingual crisis communication has been the focus of the research projects conducted by Master of Applied Linguistics students at Macquarie University as part of their “Literacies” unit. We close the year by sharing some of their findings.

Here, Yudha Hidayat shows that the over-reliance on written communication channels in rural Indonesia has resulted in a stark lack of information about how to prevent the spread of the virus.

***

Official COVID-19 information

The information gap between urban Australia and rural Indonesia

When the COVID-19 pandemic really took off in March 2020, I called my parents, who live in a village in West Nusa Tenggara (WNT) province. I asked them how the people in my village were preparing themselves to stem the spread of the virus.

Their shocking response was that they had no idea what to do.

I explained the health protocol in detail and sent money so that villagers could buy face masks. That was all I could do while I was far away from home.

For this research, I explore how it is possible that a community is not aware of COVID-19 prevention measures. How could my parents not know what to do? It is true that they do not own smartphones and do not have internet access but they do watch a lot of TV.

Unlike most people in my village, I am a literate and educated man. Having a strong internet connection in Australia, I can access a wide range of information from different sources in English and Indonesian.

Here, I argue that the pandemic has exposed global inequalities in information delivery and that local governments need to take local communication seriously in the fight against the disease.

How COVID-19 prevention information was delivered in WNT province

The local government has relied heavily on its official website and social media as the primary tools for delivering Covid-19-related information.

Official COVID-19 information

The official website is updated weekly and provides infection lists. The website also includes a long health protocol, and provides flyers, graphics, tables, and figures. All this information is only available in Indonesian with some English words and phrases mixed in, such as “social distancing”, “lockdown”, and “contact tracing”.

Monolingual information in a multilingual context

The reliance on the Indonesian language, as the only language used for this essential information, ignores the diversity of multilingual citizens.

WNT province comprises two main islands, namely Lombok and Sumbawa, and tens of small islands. The majority of the people in this province are from three ethnic groups, namely Sasak, Bima, and Sumbawa. Each of these groups has its own language including various dialects and at least nine other languages are spoken in the province, including Bajo, Balinese, Bugis, Javanese, Madura, Makasar, Mandarin Ampenan, and Melayu.

Given low levels of education in the province, the Indonesian language proficiency of many of these speakers of other languages will not be sufficient to fully understand the public health information provided to them.

Digital written communication in a low-literacy and low-technology context

The reliance on written text and on online delivery is also problematic.

According to data from the Ministry of Education and Culture of Indonesia (2019) WNT has a low overall literacy index (i.e., 33.64). Furthermore, only a small number of citizens use digital technology to access written materials (20.48), and reading is a habit for only a minority (38.17). Another indicator shows that 12.41% of the population of WNT are illiterate.

All these facts make it clear that COVID-19-related information provided only through the written medium on a website is out of the reach of many citizens.

English loan words exacerbate the problem

The use of foreign terms, tables, and figures on the website exacerbates these problems further.

Even among those who are proficient in Indonesian and have access to the internet, not everyone will understand English. The high level of English loanwords thus acts as a further barrier.

Infection numbers remain high throughout Indonesia

The same is true for the ability to interpret tables and figures.

What can be done?

As I have shown, vital information related to COVID-19 is provided in a way that makes it inaccessible to many in WNT. Although it is true that Covid-19-related reporting can also be found on TV and in newspapers, neither of these channels address the problems of illiterate people and/or those who live in remote areas.

It is obviously impossible to lift the literacy levels of a populations during a crisis or to catch up on telecommunications infrastructure. But that does not mean that public health information cannot be communicated effectively.

The alternative method that I propose is to utilise the oral method as an additional communication channel, as has been done successfully in Taiwan (Chen, 2020). The infrastructure exists as every neighborhood has a leader (‘Ketua RT’) who could be trained and tasked with providing COVID-19 information in this manner.

Oral communication could utilize the loudspeakers of mosques and temples that are readily available in every neighborhood. Oral announcements over loudspeakers are plausible since they can easily be delivered in local languages and are accessible regardless of literacy level and internet access.

This would not only help curb the spread of the virus but also accord local people the dignity and respect they deserve.

Reference

Chen, C-M. (2020). Public health messages about Covid-19 prevention in multilingual Taiwan. Multilingua, 39 (5), 597-606.