Rizal Khadafi, a doctoral student in Islamic Politics at Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), successfully conducted a dissertation defense seminar. The seminar was held by the Doctoral Program in Islamic Politics on Wednesday, October 13th, in the UMY Postgraduate Study Hall. Rizal Khadafi presented his research entitled “Anti-Vaccination Movements in Brazil, the United States, and Indonesia; the COVID-19 Pandemic and Population Density Issues in Indonesia” before the examining committee.
Rizal Khadafi explained the anti-vaccination movement on social media, which uses hashtags to reject vaccination policies in combating the spread of COVID-19. He found that 69.26% of hashtags rejecting the COVID-19 vaccine were found in Brazil, 59.44% in the USA, and 62.81% in Indonesia. In general, a clear and strong correlation was found between the hashtags used to reject COVID-19 vaccination policies in the three countries. The hashtag #covidiots dominated in Brazil, #covivaccine was most commonly found in the USA, and #antivaccine was the most dominant in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, looking at the correlation between population density and the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and whether the transmigration program could be used as an alternative post-COVID-19 policy, Rizal Khadafi suggested that Indonesia’s economic recovery, which currently focuses on the recovery of large, medium, and small-scale industries, needs to be re-examined. Post-COVID-19 economic and social recovery in Indonesia should begin by reducing population density through transmigration and prioritizing labor-intensive sectors in agriculture, plantations, and fisheries outside of the tourism and creative economy.
The examining committee consisted of Prof. Dr. Achmad Nurmandi, M.Sc., Prof. Dr. Wahyudi Kumorotomo, MPP., Dr. Zuly Qodir, M.Ag, Dr. Ulung Pribadi, M.Si., and Dr. Hasse J., M.A. (chairperson). The examination was open and witnessed by other Islamic politics students. The examiners provided suggestions and input on the presented material. Rizal Khadafi was asked to revise his dissertation research findings according to the examiners’ directions.
