Developing countries prefer to borrow from China because it simply means business and does not take elements like human rights, press freedom, and economic liberalization into account.

It's a blood sport with very little in the way of rules or regulations and as we ourselves witnessed earlier this week, whatever was left of the rules of the game was dismantled to make way for a vulgar display of power.

Jokowi has admitted to playing an active role in defining the course of the upcoming presidential election for the good of the nation, but the Constitutional Court’s ruling early this week only indicates the opposite.

Experts have pointed to the distorting effect of subsidies, known as a misallocation of resources, meaning that funds do not go where they are most useful.

Next year, the youth vote will be just as important as the Muslim vote or the Javanese vote.

The Constitutional Court is now at the nadir of its credibility and can no longer function as a guardian of the Constitution.

In the midst of growing opposition toward increased dynastic politics, the Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that anyone who has been elected to a regional post can run in a presidential election, regardless of age, clearing the path for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo's eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to join the ticket of Gerindra Party presumptive presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in next year's ballot.

It would be unfair to use the civil servant salary increase as a pretext to demand a minimum wage hike since the government decided to raise the wage of civil servants, military personnel and pensioners after a four-year moratorium, while the private-sector minimum wage has increased every year.

One of the main reasons for Indonesia's high level of death sentences is President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's "zero-tolerance" policy against drugs.

The President must use his power, as stipulated by the law, to remove Firli from his post, or risk being remembered for turning a blind eye or even being complicit in his shenanigans. 

The longer that the mismanagement remains, the larger the financial losses incurred by pension funds will be, because, like life insurance funds, pension funds are long-term and have long-term contingent liabilities.

Without any global intervention, the violence will spiral out of control only leading to further misery for the people in Gaza and Israel.  

As long as corruption remains rampant, state institutions, including the KPU, should serve as role models in providing no room for graft. Elections should produce lawmakers who fight for people’s aspirations rather than narrow personal or factional interests.

Manufacturers have long complained that local content requirements put them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis foreign competitors in the global market.

This was the first time that Indonesia, once a widely feared badminton powerhouse, failed to win any medals in the sport at the Asian Games in its 61 years of participation.

As we have learned from the Whoosh HSR gaffe, the stakes are too high for us to realize the railway extension unless a team is assigned to comprehensively evaluate the project.

Jakarta would lose credibility if state-owned companies were shown to have peddled arms to Myanmar while Indonesian diplomats championed the immediate cessation of violence in the Five-Point Consensus regional peace plan.

Aside from looking at modernization and capacity building, perhaps this year’s TNI Day is a good occasion to reflect on the military’s role in protecting our democracy with a view to the 2024 general election.

Hoping is not good enough. Incentives and disincentives must compel polluters to engage.

ASEAN and the wider world is looking forward to the promised "dream" trilateral summit between China, Japan and South Korea, and that their leaders can reach a compromise so we can finally release the collective breath we've been holding over rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific.

It’s perhaps too early to assess the overall performance of the national team in Hangzhou, but clearly the pre-tournament target of winning 12 golds, or eight golds in the coming week, is a tall order.

The PSI has gotten a lot of flak as one of the country's youngest political parties, which is led by youths and claims to represent young voters, but its latest move to elect as its chairman Kaesang, a political novice and the President's youngest son, shows it has a ways to go to reach maturity, both politically and as an institution.

Overcrowded prisons are a result of the punitive attitude of the judiciary, prosecutors and law enforcement officers, particularly regarding drug users.

At least one third of the country’s landfills are still using the open-dumping method, according to the ministry.

TikTok seems to present an easy target for many countries, but seeing how the line between communication and trade is blurring today, especially in the retail sector, the government would do well to take a look at the broader implications of banning social commerce, lest it clamp down on homegrown start-ups that are supporting Indonesia's economic backbone: MSMEs.

At the UN forum and elsewhere, Indonesia has become a defender of the interests of developing nations through a moderate and nonconfrontational approach

The government bears the brunt of the blame for the violence that has erupted on Rempang Island over its planned eviction of local residents in the name of development, as it has again ignored its own rules on pursuing consultative dialogue toward obtaining their free, prior and informed consent.

That an important building like the National Museum could catch fire due to an electrical malfunction does not inspire confidence at all. 

Critics have said that a large investment from China in Indonesia’s nickel industry may have become a major hurdle to partnership with the US.

Public officials can easily disguise their misuse of government facilities as official trips, as has been widely practiced in the past.