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Jakarta Post
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Why Indonesia needs an accountable developmental state

To unlock its economic potential on the road to 2045, Indonesia must move beyond simply chasing finance to closing its core development capital formation gap. Building an accountable, state-led architecture, not just a larger bureaucracy, is the true master key to turning strategic priorities into productive national wealth.

1 month ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Domestic bottlenecks in RI’s electricity export strategy

State asset fund Danantara recently signed two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Singapore's Keppel Electric, Sembcorp Industries and Singapore Energy Interconnections for a cross-border renewable electricity project, marking another milestone in the long-running effort to export Indonesia’s renewable power to the island state. Despite the progress, Energy and Mineral Resources (E...

1 month ago
Editorial premium

Financial hub on shaky ground

Rushing the newly planned financial center through an opaque, three-week legislative blitz risks creating an unstable tax haven and sidelines the deep, system-wide economic reforms the country actually needs. ...

1 month ago

The Latest

Academia

Stop policing AI in the classroom. Start teaching it

Instead of discouraging students from using generative AI, universities should teach them how to use the technology responsibly, transparently and ethically to prepare them for real-world applications in a fast-evolving workforce.

1 month ago
Academia premium

World Cup 2026: Intelligence, truth, achievement and public perception

The World Cup offers far more than sporting entertainment; it offers a mirror through which humanity may examine itself.

1 month ago
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Time for Indonesia to build a new coalition of middle power

As global superpowers clash and fracture the international order, Indonesia has a rare opportunity to unite rising middle powers and forge a new center of gravity in world diplomacy.

1 month ago
Academia premium

Who will sit atop the next world order?

American hegemony has given way to a new formulation based on rivalry and competition among several major powers, where there is no longer a fixed, codified set of rules.

1 month ago
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Can Indonesia's rights law tackle cross-border abuses?

Human rights abuses are no longer confined by national borders, yet the institutions tasked with addressing them remain largely bound by them.

1 month ago
Academia premium

Indonesia’s dangerous gamble with defactualization of public life

While political rhetoric and insider deals create a comfortable narrative in Jakarta, global markets are marking that reality to market—and forcing a weakening rupiah to pay the bill.

1 month ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: Credit growth rebounds, but households remain under pressure

Indonesia's banking sector appears to be recovering, with credit growth returning to double digits in May. Yet beneath the encouraging headline, households face mounting financial pressure as consumer lending slows, layoffs rise, savings decline and purchasing power weakens. The contrast highlights a broader challenge: A banking recovery does not necessarily signal an improvement in the real economy.

1 month ago
Editorial premium

Stop Mideast escalation

As the protracted Mideast conflict continues to send economic shock waves across the globe, ASEAN must leverage its diplomatic weight to restore international law vis-à-vis the Hormuz strait before power politics dictates the world's most vital waterway.

1 month ago
Academia

Forget crude. War pushes refiners to the brink

The renewed disruption to traffic through Hormuz has once again choked off regional exports, threatening hopes for a recovery in Asian or Middle Eastern refinery activity.

1 month ago
Academia premium

Chile and Indonesia: Building a Pacific strategic partnership for the future

As open economies, Chile and Indonesia understand that globalization must become more inclusive, resilient and sustainable, ensuring that its benefits reach a broader range of people and communities.

1 month ago
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National unity: A lesson from Spain’s World Cup triumph

Spain’s World Cup triumph reveals a crucial lesson for a divided Malaysia: true national unity isn't built by erasing our differences, but by playing for the same goal.

1 month ago
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Subsidies do not explain China's competitiveness

Like every major economy, China does use industrial policy, and its subsidies have mattered. But subsidies are no longer the most convincing explanation for Chinese firms’ growing competitiveness.

1 month ago
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Indonesia as a global financial hub: Fantasy or strategic opportunity?

For Indonesia’s new financial hub to become a global powerhouse rather than an ambitious policy fantasy, the nation must offer investors what matters most: unyielding legal certainty.

1 month ago
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Who gets what and how in AGO’s graft takeover

The PLN scandal was not an isolated event, but rather the tip of an iceberg of systematic kickbacks and case-brokering spanning the country's largest financial scandals.

1 month ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: The anti-LGBTQ push and the securitization of identity

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) issues have once again surged to the forefront of Indonesia's political and social discourse. Two recent, overlapping developments warrant close examination: the formal classification of the "spread of LGBTQ culture" as a nonmilitary threat under the national defense policy, and a concerted legislative push to introduce criminal sanctions targeting LGBTQ people and advocacy.

2 months ago
Editorial premium

Potential risks of B50

As Indonesia leaps blindly into a world-first B50 biodiesel mandate, the Prabowo administration’s high-stakes gamble for energy independence risks triggering domestic supply crunches, market instability and environmental fallout.

2 months ago
Academia

The missing link in the blue carbon agenda: The workforce

Blue carbon involves more than just counting carbon. It requires governance, finance, policy and practice. Ultimately, success hinges on people and their skills.

2 months ago
Academia premium

Indonesia must leverage Russia, India for its spacefront blueprint

As two BRICS giants vie to build Indonesia’s first spaceport, Jakarta stands at a crossroads: it must swiftly finalize its regulatory framework and secure vital technology transfers to transform its equatorial advantage into sovereign spacefaring power.

2 months ago
Academia premium

Asian bishops assembly: Building bridges of dialogue for humanity, justice

As the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences convenes in Jakarta, the Asian Catholic Church faces a historic opportunity to turn the ideals of interfaith harmony and digital-age human dignity into a concrete regional roadmap for social justice.

2 months ago
Academia premium

Development economics for an age of upheaval

As the boundaries that once separated sectors become blurred, prosperity increasingly depends on how economies build the ecosystems that sustain technological progress and nurture new productive capacity.

2 months ago
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Still a mystery: Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?

The issue has evolved from a purely humanitarian concern into one of information credibility and international diplomacy.

2 months ago
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Why the President should stop acting as foreign minister

While President Prabowo’s high-profile global engagement boosts Indonesia’s visibility, relying on personal charisma over institutional diplomacy risks undermining the long-term credibility of the nation's foreign policy.

2 months ago
Opinion premium

Analysis: KDMP, the great cooperative gamble

Fourteen months after President Prabowo Subianto unveiled the Red and White Cooperatives (KDMP) program as a vehicle for rural economic empowerment, the initiative increasingly resembles not a grassroots cooperative movement but a large-scale fiscal and governance experiment whose long-term sustainability remains uncertain.

2 months ago
Editorial premium

Don’t cry for Messi, Argentina

Defined by controversial refereeing, political tensions and record-breaking scoring, the just-concluded 2026 World Cup proved to be as compelling off the pitch as it was on it.

2 months ago
Academia

Trump's Iran lesson from Australia's emus

The lesson here is about strategy: superior firepower can fail against an adversary built to survive.

2 months ago
Academia premium

Sekolah Rakyat needs evidence, not applause

How Indonesia can move from celebrating a flagship anti-poverty program to actually finding out whether it works.

2 months ago
Academia premium

Indonesia’s economy is starting to lose the confidence game

Faced with a plummeting rupiah and shifting global markets, Indonesia must halt its erratic policymaking and institutional erosion before it permanently loses the vital game of investor confidence.

2 months ago
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