TheJakartaPost

How Indonesia can deliver three million homes

As noble as the goal may be, history provides a cautious reminder. ...

4 months ago

Getting off lightly

The sentences hardly reflected a sense of justice and contradicted the national consensus that deems corruption an extraordinary crime due to its far-reaching impact on society. ...

4 months ago

The Latest

A craftsperson looks at her embroidery work on an Islamic garment at the Almira Handmade boutique in Malang, East Java, on Aug. 20, 2024.

The right decision to separate Tourism and Creative Economy ministries

The separation presents an opportunity to address challenges and unlock the full potential of each sector.

4 months ago

A woman takes a look at instant foods on offer in a supermarket in Cikutra, Bandung, West Java, on Sept. 3, 2024.

Turning food waste into Indonesia’s opportunity for change

Millions of Indonesians remain food insecure while food waste accounts for nearly 8 percent of national greenhouse gas emissions.

4 months ago

Foreign Minister Sugiono smiles before his inauguration at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Oct. 21, 2024.

Sugiono's direction

We call on the minister to clarify a few controversial decisions and incidents involving the President.

4 months ago

Game changer: Constitutional Court Chief Justice Suhartoyo (center), accompanied by his deputy, Justice Saldi Isra (second left), Justice Enny Nurbaningsih (left), Justice Arief Hidayat (second right) and Justice Guntur Hamzah, presides over a hearing in Jakarta on Jan. 2, 2025.

End of threshold regime: Toward substantial democracy?

The court's decision will minimize the dominance of big or ruling parties in determining the course of the presidential race, which has disadvantaged smaller parties.

4 months ago

Democracy in action: An official holds a ballot during vote counting for the 2024 presidential election at a polling station in Banda Aceh, Aceh, on Feb. 14, 2024.

Southeast Asia’s human rights and democracy: A reflection

Democracy in Southeast Asia endures but remains perilously fragile.

4 months ago

Sri Lankans stand in a line to withdraw cash from an ATM from the Bank of Ceylon while the bank is closed during a strike against a huge tax increase in Colombo on March 1, 2023.

The urgency of global debt reform

The outlook for emerging and developing economies appears increasingly bleak.

4 months ago

Major commodity: A truck passes through the middle of an oil palm plantation in Muaro Jambi, Jambi, on Nov. 20, 2024.

Prabowo reinvigorates the development of oil palm plantations

The President’s statement marks a turning point for Indonesian palm oil after years of moratorium on the issuance of new permits and licenses of oil palm plantation development since 2011.

4 months ago

A man opens a digital bank app on July 4, 2024 in Jakarta.

Envisioning the banking technology landscape of 2025

It is highly likely that the 2025 national banking landscape will adopt a pro-technology and pro-market stance.

4 months ago

Delicate diplomacy: Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife Le Thi Bich Tran arrive at the Modern Art Museum (MAM) to attend the first session of the G20 Leaders' Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Nov. 18, 2024.

How Vietnam’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ treads a fine line between the West and Russia

Vietnam's foreign policy is underpinned by four principles: Not engaging in military alliances, not supporting any country against another, not allowing foreign military bases on its territory and not using force or threatening to use force.

4 months ago

Boys will be boys: Children play online games on their mobile phones along the roadside in Jakarta on Nov. 27, 2024.

Between 'Roblox', radicalism and AI: Parenting in the digital minefield

Today’s generation of digital natives live in the "Third World" of the metaverse, where online interactions feel as real as face-to-face conversations, and our job as parents is to help guide our children in this digital playground so it remains a creative, safe place of interaction, and not a gateway to radicalization.

4 months ago

Envisioning a just society: Volunteers help a person with disability into a shuttle service in Jakarta in this undated photo.

Invisible desires: Disability and sexuality in our midst

Absent in the public discourse is a frank and insightful discussion of the intersection between disability and sexuality.

4 months ago

Voices for Earth: A group of climate activists demonstrate in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, the Netherlands, for climate justice on Dec. 2, 2024. For the first time, a major climate case has begun at the court to determine what legal obligations countries have to protect the climate.

ICJ submission: A chance to save the Earth

While Indonesia supports the continuation of the ICJ advisory opinion proceedings, its written submission appears cautious.

4 months ago

Every vote counts: A woman casts her ballot for the presidential and legislative elections at a polling station in Banda Aceh, on Feb. 14, 2024.

Trashing the threshold

The promise of better governance and democratic consolidation expected from implementing the presidential threshold has barely been fulfilled.

4 months ago

Facing strategic challenges: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands before a picture of the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, at Ankara Esenboga Airport on Dec. 12, 2024.

Is Erdogan set to remake the Middle East?

By leveraging Turkey’s military power, economic influence and ideological appeal, Erdogan seeks to position Ankara as the lynchpin of a new regional order.

4 months ago

French digital and virtual artist Miguel Chevalier (front) poses with his work “Maillages Cosmique“ during his “Pixels“ exhibition, an interactive experience at the crossroads of art and artificial intelligence, at the Grand Palais Immersif in Paris on Nov. 4, 2024.

Navigating the risks of digital public infrastructure

Understanding the risks of DPI is crucial to ensuring that its potential benefits materialize.

4 months ago

Timepieces by luxury watchmaker Rolex are displayed in this stock image.

Policy reversals erode Indonesia's economic stability

While the government's decision to backtrack on the planned VAT rate hike offers short-term relief, it also erodes public trust and investor confidence amid a shrinking middle class, which points to a need for comprehensive reforms that include labor formalization, downstreaming expansion, human capital development and supply chain integration.

4 months ago

A voter places his ballots into a ballot box on Nov. 27 at a polling station in Sitaro, North Sulawesi, during the 2024 simultaneous regional head elections in 37 provinces and over 500 regencies and municipalities.

Prabowo's leadership: Balancing centralization and the future of Indonesia’s democracy

Prabowo's big-tent leadership approach hearkens the pre-Reform top-down governance model and signals a regression toward centralized authority, leaving a question as to whether he can rise to the challenge of strengthening Indonesia's pluralistic, inclusive democracy toward sustainable governance.

4 months ago

A pedestrian uses his smartphone while walking on a sidewalk in Jakarta in February 2019 past an advertisement for Indonesian telecommunications service provider XL Axiata.

Opinion premium

Analysis: XL Axiata, Smartfren $6.5b merger consolidates RI telecom industry

The country’s two smallest mobile operator companies PT XL Axiata Tbk and PT Smartfren Telecom officially merged into PT XLSmart Telecom Sejahtera Tbk, consolidating the country’s mobile operator industry to three players. The Rp 104 trillion (US$6.5 billion) merger was seen as inevitable as the telecom industry is saturated. As the industry becomes more concentrated, the risk of oligopoly also emerges.

4 months ago

A teller arranges stacks of United States dollar and rupiah bills on March 1, 2024, at a money changer in Jakarta.

Trump’s second act and Indonesia's economic outlook in 2025

Trump’s reelection and its impact on US monetary policy add a layer of complexity to Indonesia’s fiscal and monetary landscape.

4 months ago

The venue of a canceled art exhibition of painter Yos Suprapto is seen empty on Dec. 20, 2024, at the National Galley in Jakarta. The exhibition was canceled by the National Gallery on its opening day on Dec. 19, 2024.

Authoritarian alarm

The cancellation of the exhibition of the work of Yogyakarta-based artist Yos Suprapto marked another setback for freedom of expression in the country.

4 months ago

Veteran journalist Atmakusumah Astraatmadja (right) shows off his new book Pers Ideal untuk Masa Demokrasi (The Ideal Press for Democracy) on Monday, while posing with former Press Council chairman Bagir Manan (left) at the National Library of Indonesia in Jakarta.

Farewell Atmakusumah, press freedom prodigy

In his Magsaysay Award acceptance speech in Manila on Aug. 31, 2000, Atma stated that despite press bans carried out by presidents Sukarno and Soeharto, “the spirit of press freedom and freedom of expression never dies.”

4 months ago

Moo Deng, a 2-month-old female pygmy hippo who became a viral internet sensation, rests at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, on Sept. 15, 2024.

One last look at Asia’s 2024 winners and losers

Diverse, mixed democratic trajectories for a diversity of democracies in Asia characterized 2024.

4 months ago

Residents place candles in front of the 'Motherland' monument during a commemoration of the 1,000th day of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, in Kyiv on Nov. 19, 2024.

How 2025 is geopolitically different from 1945

As the world enters 2025, the chasm between the rulers and the ruled remains great, if not getting greater, regardless of the mechanism of governance or regime type.

4 months ago

Driving economic growth: A visitor browses information on investment potential in West Java on Sept. 19, 2024, at the West Java Investment Summit 2024 in Bandung.

Safeguarding Indonesian interests through investment treaties

Indonesia has faced challenges arising from provisions that limit its ability to regulate investor activities and protect its own sovereignty.

4 months ago

The floating panels of a solar power plant at Cirata Dam in Purwakarta regency, West Java, are seen from above on Sept. 26, 2023. Jointly built by state electricity company PT PLN and United Arab Emirates’ Masdar, the power plant generates 192 megawatts peak (MWp).

Could Indonesia make progress in its energy transition in 2025?

Indonesia's energy transition faces many challenges but has great potential.

4 months ago

Health tech startup apps appear on a screen on Aug 2, 2021.