As El Niño intensifies, this year's dry season has already triggered severe water shortages and rampant wildfires in an emerging crisis that will serve as a high-stakes litmus test for the food security agenda and climate adaptation policies of the Prabowo administration.

Investors seem wary of over-committing to the futures contract, but the options landscape paints a very different picture.

We have built exquisite digital systems for entertainment and consumption, yet the infrastructure governing food, water and health remains tragically under-designed. It is time to move past static government websites and build real-time public ecosystems that transform data into actual human wellbeing.

It is not simply that BSSN has lacked authority but that existing instruments, where they do exist, have gone unused. 

We cannot meet today’s health needs, let alone tomorrow’s, with yesterday’s tools.

As global anti-immigrant sentiment rises, Indonesia’s strict ban on refugee employment is creating a crisis of "constructive refoulement", robbing displaced people of their dignity and forcing an urgent need for legal reform.

As Jakarta approaches its 500th anniversary, glowing infrastructure and plummeting poverty rates mask a fragile socioeconomic reality. The city's future will not be defined by its skyscrapers but by whether it can rescue its massive yet vulnerable aspiring middle class from permanent economic insecurity.

Students from Indonesia’s leading universities have once again taken to the streets in Jakarta and other major cities, about eight months after the last wave of mass protests turned violent. This time, they are specifically targeting President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership and governing style, which they blame for the country’s current economic difficulties.

A fragile US-Iran peace deal brings global relief, but it leaves Indonesia with a stark wake-up call after a distant conflict reached into its kitchens and effectively turned off the lights in Jakarta.

The Iran war exposed the dangers of relying on a single chokepoint for vital oil and gas exports, leaving Gulf governments with a clear strategic imperative: diversify, at all costs.

While food may appear affordable in supermarkets or politically attractive like the free nutritious meals program or food self-sufficiency campaign, the true costs are often hidden.

A more structured trilateral framework involving Indonesia, Australia and Pacific Island countries would likely be more effective than fragmented bilateral efforts.

Tropical countries face opportunity costs when conserving forests, so it falls on northern countries to compensate them for conservation efforts that benefit everyone.

The problem for Purbaya is not the policy itself. The problem is the communication surrounding it.

The document's operational core, per leaked accounts of its 14 points, is narrow.

After more than two decades without a fare increase, the Jakarta administration is once again debating whether it is time to raise Transjakarta ticket prices. As passenger numbers continue to surge and operating costs outpace revenue growth, maintaining the current flat fare of Rp 3,500 (20 US cents) is becoming increasingly difficult. Yet the debate extends beyond whether passengers should pay more. It also raises a broader question: Should Jakarta alone continue subsidizing a service that increasingly benefits commuters from across Greater Jakarta?

For all its progress, however, Jakarta continues to struggle with the consequences of its rapid urban growth.

Beyond the goals and the glamor of the 2026 pitch, the FIFA World Cup has quietly evolved into humanity's most powerful arena for political survival, cultural recognition and global solidarity.

In its pursuit of peace and stability, Myanmar has been constructing bridges of mutual respect, mutual trust and cooperation with all stakeholders, often at great cost.

Behind Indonesia’s improving statistics lies a harsh reality of over one million children hidden in an unregulated, informal economy. To save them, the government must democratize local data and force its siloed ministries to cooperate.

Beyond mere trade, Indonesia and China are forging an alliance to reshape regional finance, dominate the EV ecosystem and rewrite the rules of global governance in a new, high-stakes era.

Beneath the surface of frozen diplomacy, severe sanctions, and looming military tension over Taiwan, the fraying relationship between Japan and China is trapped between the harsh realities of a new cold war and the quiet resilience of deep economic ties.

The government has issued Government Regulation (PP) No. 19/2026 on state asset fund Danantara, allowing entities under Danantara Investment Management (DIM) to receive state capital injections from the state budget for purposes of national development and public service. While Danantara recently secured investment grade credit ratings, the new regulation raises concerns about moral hazard, particularly as questions on the fund’s governance, transparency and financial disclosures remain unresolved.

Global economic shocks and climate volatility are no longer temporary disruptions; they are structural crises deeply embedded in our strained natural systems. For resource-rich nations like Indonesia, surviving the next shock requires rewriting the global incentive structure to value nature on the national balance sheet and fairly compensate the smallholders on the front lines.

As soccer's old guard stumbles against a fierce new wave of global underdogs, the expanding World Cup proves that the gap between the giants and the rest is officially dead.

When the National Economic Council head announces that artificial intelligence is now "cleaning" the personal data of 270 million Indonesians across eight government ministries – and delivers that news as a triumph rather than a warning – something has gone badly wrong with how we communicate risk to the public.

While student protests expose deep-seated anxieties over economic mismanagement, Indonesia's ultimate survival relies on shifting its revolutionary spirit away from the streets and toward breaking the shackles of economic stagnation.